The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies any connection with the extradition and release of Azeri assassin Ramil Safarov.

“We are perplexed that the reactions by the Armenian Diaspora in the United States, following the extradition by the Hungarian authorities and subsequent pardoning by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev of Ramil Safarov, who had been serving a life sentence in a Hungarian jail for killing Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan during a NATO training event in Budapest are also being directed at Turkey,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“These efforts and baseless claims targeting Turkey, which has not been involved at any stage of the process, are nothing more than another attempt at defamation by ill-intentioned circles that habitually confront Turkey in every platform,” it said.