Mirzoyan: Armenia's ambassador to Hungary to be appointed soon

YEREVAN, December 7. /ARKA/. Armenia will appoint soon an ambassador to Hungary, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said today during a government Q&A session in parliament.
Armenia terminated diplomatic relations with Hungary in 2012 after it extradited to Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov, who murdered an Armenian army officer in Budapest.
"Hungarian authorities should not have handed over to Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov, the murderer of Gurgen Margaryan. At the same time, we remember Hungary's efforts last year to return five Armenian prisoners of war from Azerbaijan. Representatives of the Hungarian authorities personally went to Baku and returned to Yerevan together with five prisoners," Mirzoyan said.
Mirzoyan noted that Hungary's assistance in the fight against Covid-19 and assistance to Armenian churches and schools cannot be overlooked.
"When all this is weighed up, it seems to me that the choice must be made in the direction of positivity and the future, which has been done. You will soon hear about the appointment of ambassadors in both countries," Mirzoyan said..
Safarov was convicted of the 2004 murder of Armenian army officer Gurgen Margarayan During a NATO-sponsored training seminar in Budapest, Safarov broke into Margaryan's dormitory room at night and axed Margaryan to death while he was asleep. In Azerbaijan, Safarov has become a highly celebrated figure for his killing of an Armenian.
In 2006, Safarov was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary with a minimum incarceration period of 30 years. After his request under the Strasbourg Convention, he was extradited in 2012 to Azerbaijan, where he was greeted as a hero, pardoned by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev despite contrary assurances made to Hungary, promoted to the rank of major and given an apartment and over eight years of back pay. -0-