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Armenia Says Suspends Hungary Ties In Soldier Row

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  • Armenia Says Suspends Hungary Ties In Soldier Row

    ARMENIA SAYS SUSPENDS HUNGARY TIES IN SOLDIER ROW

    Terra.com
    http://news.terra.com/armenia-says-suspends-hungary-ties-in-soldier-row,286c7899a2e79310VgnVCM20000099cceb0aRCRD.html
    Aug 31 2012

    Armenia said it was suspending diplomatic relations with Hungary on
    Friday because it had allowed an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian
    officer in 2004 to return home, where he was immediately pardoned
    and freed.

    "Hungarian authorities should understand that they have made a grave
    mistake," President Serzh Sarksyan told his Security Council in a
    statement posted on his website.

    "They de-facto made a deal with the Azeri authorities."

    The row erupted after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil
    Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 killing
    of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan during NATO training in Hungary.

    Hungary agreed to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he arrived
    on Friday, after it had received assurances he would serve out his
    sentence.

    Within hours of the announcement of Safarov's release, Sarksyan called
    an emergency meeting of his Security Council.

    "I officially announce that as of today we cease all diplomatic
    relations and all ties with Hungary," Sarksyan said in a press release
    distributed by his administration.

    Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the war between ethnic
    Azeris and Armenians which erupted in 1991 over the mainly Armenian
    Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but relations
    remain tense.

    Cross-border clashes this year have prompted worries of a resumption
    of fighting in a region crisscrossed by energy pipelines to Europe.

    Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs with the heavy military and
    financial backing of Armenia since the war, when Armenian-backed forces
    seized control of the enclave and seven surrounding Azeri districts.

    Russia, France and the United States have led years of mediation
    efforts under the auspices of the OSCE. Baku and Yerevan failed to
    agree at talks in June last year and the angry rhetoric between them
    has worsened since then.

    Hungary has been developing economic ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan
    and gave backing to the Nabucco pipeline project seen as the main
    route for Azeri gas exports to Europe. Hungarian media reported that
    Azerbaijan could lend Hungary 2-to-3 billion euros ($2.5-3.8 billion).

    Oil-producing Azerbaijan, which is host to oil majors including BP,
    Chevron and ExxonMobil, frequently threatens to take the mountain
    enclave back by force, and is spending heavily on its armed forces.

    ($1 = 0.7933 euros)

    (Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; Writing Gleb Bryanski; Editing by
    Michael Roddy)

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