YEREVAN. Sept 3 (Interfax) - Hundreds of people have gathered in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to protest Hungary's decision to transfer to Azerbaijan Azeri military officer Ramil Safarov serving a life sentence for killing an Armenian officer.
About 300 people gathered in front of the Hungarian consulate office in the center of Yerevan and torched a Hungarian flag on Saturday.
Activists from the organization Ayazn, which initiated the protest, have glued numerous posters to the consulate's doors and walls, saying, 'Hungary, good bye', 'Are you insane, Hungary?', 'Pay 3 billion and buy a murderer' and others and also threw coins on the ground near the building.
Before this, a similar protest demonstration took place near the Armenian Foreign Ministry headquarters.
It was reported earlier that Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian army lieutenant, who was taking an English language course in Budapest under NATO's Partnership For Peace program, was killed with an axe in his sleep by Azeri officer Ramil Safarov attending the same course on February 19, 2004. A Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life without the right to parole during the first 30 years of his imprisonment on April 13, 2006. However, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan on Friday, and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev immediately pardoned him.
Armenia announced the severance of diplomatic ties with Hungary later on Friday. "I am declaring officially that we are severing diplomatic relations and all official ties with Hungary starting from today," Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with ambassadors from UN countries accredited in Armenia on Friday.
"Neither I nor the people of Armenia can accept this. The Armenian people will not forgive this," Sargsyan said.
Armenian media reported earlier citing Hungarian publications that Azerbaijan was preparing to buy Hungarian state bonds worth from 2 to 3 billion euro.
Washington has expressed its concerns about Aliyev's decision to pardon the murderer of the Armenian officer and demanded explanations from Budapest regarding his transfer to Azerbaijan.
"The United States is also requesting an explanation from Hungary regarding its decision to transfer Safarov to Azerbaijan," U.S. National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement posted on the White House website.