ArmInfo. Exactly 21 years ago, on this day in Budapest, an officer of the Armenian army Gurgen Margaryan was brutally murdered in a NATO training camp.
Margaryan was hacked to death with an axe in his sleep by an Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov, who was participating in the same training.
Today, the criminal not only walks free, but is also perceived in Azerbaijan as a national hero.
On February 19, 2004, Lieutenant of the Armenian army Gurgen Margaryan, who was sent to Budapest for English language courses as part of the NATO Partnership for Peace program, was brutally hacked to death with an axe in his sleep by an Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, a participant in the same courses. On April 13, 2006, the Budapest Court of First Instance sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without the right to parole for 30 years.
On August 31, 2012, Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in Hungary, was extradited to his homeland. On the same day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree pardoning him. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry paid the killer the salary that had accumulated during his entire time in prison (more than eight years), provided him with an apartment, and awarded him the rank of major.
In connection with Safarov's extradition, Armenia suspended diplomatic relations and all official ties with Hungary on the same day.
However, in 2022, the Armenian side proposed that Hungary turn this page in bilateral relations and resume diplomatic contacts.