Today is 21st anniversary of brutal murder of Armenian officer Gurgen  Margaryan 

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.