Armenia’s former leadership froze diplomatic relations with Hungary in 2012 after Hungarian authorities controversially extradited to Azerbaijan an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in Budapest in 2004. The officer, Ramil Safarov, whom a Hungarian court sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006, was pardoned, rewarded and promoted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on his return to Azerbaijan.
The Hungarian government claimed to have received prior assurances by Baku that Safarov would serve the rest of his life sentence in an Azerbaijani prison. Yerevan dismissed that explanation.
The current Armenian government decided to restore the diplomatic ties last year even though Hungary never apologized for Safarov’s release and continued to support Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto reached an agreement to that effect when they met in Poland in December 2022. Yerevan and Budapest appointed non-resident ambassadors to each other’s country earlier this year.
Visiting Yerevan, Szijjarto emphasized the “Christian heritage and Christian faith” shared by the two nations.
“This is the easiest foundation based on which we can rebuild this relationship,” he told Mirzoyan at the start of their talks. He also voiced support for Armenia’s efforts to deepen ties with the EU.
Szijjarto’s visit came one month after the Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced its entire ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.
“The EU condemns the military operation by Azerbaijan against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and deplores the casualties and loss of life caused by this escalation,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a September 21 statement.
Rikard Jozwiak, RFE/RL’s Europe editor, reported that the statement was due to be issued by the EU’s 27 member states but that Hungary blocked it. The Azerbaijani news agency Trend likewise cited “sources in European diplomatic circles” as saying that Budapest vetoed its adoption.
Szijjarto commented vaguely on the issue during a joint news conference with Mirzoyan. He said only that Borrell is free to make statements on various issues and that the Hungarian government does not think it necessary to “agree on what he should say on behalf of everyone.”
In an October 5 resolution, the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of committing “ethnic cleansing” against the Karabakh Armenians and called on the EU to impose sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long maintained a warm rapport with Aliyev, spoke out against such sanctions the following day. He said Azerbaijan is a “strategically important country” which is helping Europe reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas.
“Without Azerbaijan we cannot have energy independence,” Orban told reporters during an EU summit in Spain. “It’s a great country, we need them.”
Unlike other EU member states, Hungary has openly supported Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that support three days after the outbreak of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh.
Shortly after the six-week war, Orban’s government encouraged Hungarian firms to participate in infrastructure projects planned by Baku in areas recaptured by the Azerbaijani army. Szijjarto said at the time that Hungary’s state-run development bank is ready to lend them $100 million for that purpose.
Mirzoyan did not mention Hungary’s pro-Azerbaijani stance when he spoke at the news conference with Szijjarto. Instead, he thanked Budapest for providing over $100,000 worth of humanitarian aid to Karabakh refugees. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian similarly called for closer Armenian-Hungarian ties “in various areas” when he met with the Hungarian minister later in the day.