After the two-day OSCE summit in the city of Lodz, Poland, which brings together 58 countries, Armenia and Hungary decided on Thursday, December 1.fully restore their diplomatic relations“. This settlement was formulated after the bilateral meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijártó.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia published a statement on its website, which says:The ministers exchanged ideas on the current state of relations between Armenia and Hungary. They agreed to restore full diplomatic relations, expressing their intention to open a new chapter based on mutual trust and respect for international law.“. The two parties thus committed to appoint ambassadors in the near future.non-residentsto complete this process.
In 2012, Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary when Budapest allowed Azerbaijan to extradite Ramil Safarov Sahib, an Azerbaijani officer who had killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan. “Neither the Armenian people nor I can accept this decision. The Armenian people will not forgive him“President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said in 2008-2018.
Ramil Safarov Sahib killed his Armenian colleague in 2004 during the NATO-organized English learning courses in Budapest. The murder was especially terrible, the Armenian officer was killed in his sleep, with 16 ax blows to the head. Two years later, on April 13, 2006, Ramil Safarov Sahib was sentenced by a Hungarian judge to life imprisonment six years before his extradition. In addition to breaking diplomatic relations, this decision was very badly received by the Armenian population. The Hungarian Embassy was stormed by protesters who threw tomatoes at the walls of the building, shouting:Hungary should be ashamed“.
Extradition of 7 million dollars.
When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, decided to extradite this Azerbaijani soldier, he justified his decision by explaining that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had promised to keep the murderer in prison, respecting the Strasbourg international organization. 1983 Convention Governing Extradition. But the president of Azerbaijan did exactly the opposite. He pardoned Ramil Safarov Sahib before offering him military promotion;compensationeight years’ salary and a new apartment. The murderer thus became a national hero in Azerbaijan, a symbol of the dictatorship that was slowly preparing for a new war against Armenia after the first Nagorno Karabakh war (1988-1994).
In 2017, during the international investigation, which he carried out Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and international media, investigative reporters from the media Atlazzo found out the existence of a 7 million dollar transaction, which was carried out at the time of Ramil Safarov Sahib’s extradition from the investment fund belonging to the oligarchs close to the Azerbaijani government to the account of the Hungarian MKB bank. In exchange for the extradition of Ramil Safarov Sahib, Hungarian officials were suspected of having received such money through the mediation of Orkham Eyubov, the owner of a bank account in Hungary. In June 2012, Viktor Orbán went on an official visit to Azerbaijan, where he was able to meet with Yakub Eyubov, the first deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan, who has been in office since 2003, Orkham Eyubov’s father. This visit reinforced the suspicions surrounding this extradition.
Armenia is looking for new allies against Azerbaijan’s military operations
It is in a complex geopolitical context that Armenia has decided to regulate relations with Hungary, even if the memory of the murder of an Armenian officer in Budapest remains vivid among the Armenian population. Yerevan was recently attacked again by Azerbaijan from 13 to 16 September 2022, two years after the second Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020, which ended in an Armenian defeat, with the loss of two-thirds of Armenia’s occupied territory in this exclave. and a ceasefire under the auspices of Russian peacekeepers.
However, Russia has been locked in a war against Ukraine since last February 24, unable to prevent Azerbaijan from launching a new attack against Armenia, deciding not to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is based on the NATO-centric model. Asia and dominated by Russia.
In this context, the current Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, is looking for new partners and mediators to prevent a new military aggression by Azerbaijan, turning in particular to the USA and Europe. The reestablishment of diplomatic ties with Hungary is part of this new foreign policy and thus signals the desire of the Armenian side to wipe the towel on a terrible episode that has marked the relations between the two countries for ten years.
Finally, the two countries also emphasized their common Christian heritage and the Armenian minority present in Hungary, around 30,000 people, to emphasize the closeness of the two peoples. “Both sides agreed that there are deep historical and cultural ties between the Armenian and Hungarian peoples, as well as a common Christian heritage (…). They also emphasized the role of the Armenian community in Hungary as an officially recognized national minority, which is one of the bridges between the two nations.the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia emphasizes in a press release.
However, Hungary should not leave Azerbaijan completely. While Viktor Orbán insists on Hungary’s Christian heritage, he also regularly invokes the distant Turkish origins of the Hungarian people. With this in mind, in 2018 Hungary became an observer member of the Organization of Turkic States, an organization that unites Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and aims to promote cooperation among states with Turkish roots. On November 11, during the last summit of the organization, Viktor Orban addressed the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, comparing him to “brother“. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the Hungarian leader will be able to continue to preside over such a dual challenge between Armenia and Azerbaijan until tensions between the two countries subside.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.