Foreign Ministry of Armenia was informed about decision of Hungarian authorities 11 days before Ramil Safarov's extradition

• Monday, September 3, 14:03

The Armenian community of Hungary warned Foreign Ministry and Diaspora Ministry of Armeniaabout the intention of the Hungarian authorities to extradite Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan. The letter of the leaders of the Armenian National Self-government of Hungary to President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan is evidence of it. The letter was signed by the chairman of the organization Dr. Sevan Sargsyan, deputy chairmen Alex Avanesyan and Hikogos Hakobyan, and placed at Facebook.

The letter says, in particular: "Mr.President! On behalf of the Armenian National Self-government (ANSG) of Hungary we would like to inform you that since 2004 - the year of Gurgen Margaryan's murder, ANSG has been taking all the efforts for the killer to swallow his medicine, that happened in 2006. Since opening of Azerbaijan's embassy in Hungary the organization has been always informing Armenia's Diaspora Ministry, Foreign Ministry and Armenia's Embassy in Austria about all the anti-Armenian steps taken by Azerbaijan's Embassy. We often replied to Armenia's Diaspora Ministry and Foreign Ministry for opening Armenia's Embassy in Hungary, as Armenia's embassy in Austria was responsible for four states. Meanwhile, conflicts in Hungary, linked with the
actions of Azerbaijan, were happening every day".

The authors of the letter emphasized that they got no reply from Armenia's Embassy in Austria, as because of a small-numbered staff they do not have an opportunity to permanently deal with occurring problems. 

On 20 August,i.e. 11 days 20 before Safarov's extradition, deputy chairman of ANSG, Nikogos Hakobyan, personally applied to Armenia's Diaspora Ministry and Foreign Ministry and Armenia's Embassy in Austria with information about the decision of the Hungarian authorities. He insisted on taking of extraordinary measures to prevent final decision of the Hungarian authorities.  However, unfortunately, all the efforts were in vain.

The authors of the letter demand to clear out, why no measures were taken after receiving the letter. "After 8 years of fight ANSG of Hungary understood that Azerbaijani lobby is so much strong that only diplomatic mediation of Armenia's Foreign Ministry was necessary to prevent the decision of Hungarian authorities. Meanwhile, the Armenian community of Hungary does not receive any support from Armenia's Embassy in Austria. For this reason, the
organization itself is going to express its protest to the government of Hungary", - the letter says.

To note, we have not yet managed to get validation of the given letter.

To recall, the scandal involving Hungary, Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out on Friday following Budapest's extradition of Ramil Safarov on August 31. Azeri officer Ramil Safarov was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition, Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon the criminal and granted him a rank of Major. The same say the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan made public the decision at a special meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions on Friday after the Hungarian authorities extradited Safarov.