Over 50 Armenians gathered outside the Hungarian Embassy in Vilnius on Thursday afternoon, holding slogans "Justice for Sale," "Honest Hungarians are With Us" and "Azeri Oil Bought Europe" in sign of indignation over Hungary's decision to extradite Safarov.
"There is one objective – all civilized and democratic countries in Europe should pay attention to the intolerable development," director Marat Sargsiyan, one of the organizers of the campaign, told journalists.
"The European Parliament only said it was calling for restraint and avoidance of conflicts, however, this is not an answer. It is shameful that the European Parliament, Europe and the democratic society have responded to this event this way. I invite the administration of Lithuania to pay its attention, if this happened to Armenia today, it can happen to anyone tomorrow," he said.
The protest action involved Armenians from across Lithuania.
Holding the posters, the participants marched from the Hungarian Embassy to the Embassy of Azerbaijan.
Campaigns “in support of the relations between Hungary and Azerbaijan” were Thursday planned by representatives of the Azerbaijani community, which had even received permits for the gatherings; however, they later decided to peacefully observe the Armenian action.
In a press release circulated earlier on Thursday, the Lithuanian Society of Azerbaijan and the association Lithuania-Azerbaijan expressed "concerns over the attempts to cause anti-Hungarian and anti-Azerbaijani sentiments in Lithuania in connection to Safarov's extradition and pardon."
"Undoubtedly recognizing the right of every person in Lithuania to have his opinion on the matter, the Lithuanian Society of Azerbaijan and the association Lithuania-Azerbaijan would like to remind the need to go deeper into the essence and entirety of every phenomenon before drawing final conclusions," reads the statement, which, among other things, speaks about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict on Nagorno Karabakh.
After being tense for a long time, Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes lately heightened after Azerbaijan pardoned and promoted Azerbaijani officer, Safarov.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the concern raised by the EU regarding the situation, which had resulted from actions taken by the government of Azerbaijan in relation to Ramil Safarov and called on the countries to find a way to defuse the tension and renew the dialogue based on the generally recognized norms of international law. We sincerely hope that Lithuanian citizens of the Armenian and Azerbaijani background will contribute to these efforts," the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.
On 31 August, Hungary handed over Safarov to Baku. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Budapest without the right to be pardoned. He killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian, 30, at a Budapest military academy in 2004.
Nevertheless, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him the same day after he was extradited.
Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a bloody war in the 1990s over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
