Video Related To: Armenians in anti-Hungary protest

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia said it was suspending diplomatic relations with Hungary on Friday because it had allowed an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian officer in 2004 to return home, where he was immediately pardoned and freed. "Hungarian authorities should understand that they have made a grave mistake," President Serzh Sarksyan told his Security Council in a statement posted on his website. "They de-facto made a deal with the Azeri authorities." The row erupted after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 killing of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan during NATO training in Hungary. Hungary agreed to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he arrived on Friday, after it had received assurances he would serve out his sentence. Within hours of the announcement of Safarov's release, Sarksyan called an emergency meeting of his Security Council. "I officially announce that as of today we cease all diplomatic relations and all ties with Hungary," Sarksyan said in a press release distributed by his administration. Gabor Kaleta, a spokesman for Hungary's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Hungary had acted properly in the affair. "Hungary has acted in compliance with the requirements of international law on this issue," Kaleta told Reuters. "This is what we can say at this stage." Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the war between ethnic Azeris and Armenians which erupted in 1991 over the <b>...</b>