Monday, June 22 2015 14:09

The release of ax murderer Ramil Safarov ended Hungary's two-decade status as a reliable strategic partner of the United States, Eleni Kounalakis, former United States Ambassador to Hungary, says in her article "Madam Ambassador" published in The Washington Post. 

"In late August 2012, Orban [Prime Minister of Hungary] suddenly repatriated Ramil Safarov, an Azeri serving a life term in Hungary for hacking an Armenian soldier to death during a NATO-sponsored training program. To nobody's surprise, Safarov received a hero's welcome in Azerbaijan and was immediately pardoned, promoted and given a new apartment," says the article.  

The ex-ambassador also reflects on Washington's response to that step of Budapest.  "Don't they realize that their little trick could cause a war?" Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Marie Yovanovitch asked Kounalakis on the telephone. "Who will clean it up - Hungarians? No, Hungarians won't clean up the mess. We will! We will be the ones left to fix it!"

That little trick, Kounalakis says, ended Hungary's two-decade status as a reliable strategic partner of the United States. 

To recall, on August 31 the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan made public the decision at a special meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions on Friday after the Hungarian authorities extradited Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon the criminal.