You're reading: Armenian parliament breaks ties with Hungary

YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia's Parliament has terminated all ties with Hungary's legislators to protest the country's decision to repatriate an Azerbaijani military officer who murdered an Armenian soldier in 2004.

The
officer had been sentenced to life for killing the Armenian while both
were attending a NATO course in Hungary. After being freed, the officer
was pardoned upon returning home Friday. Hours later, Armenia broke
diplomatic relations with Hungary.

Armenia’s Parliament voted 96-1
on Wednesday night to end ties with Hungary’s Parliament, saying in a
statement that Hungarian authorities “are also responsible” for the
pardoning.

Tensions are strong between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan
controlled by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces since 1994.
International negotiators said the pardoning harms peace efforts there.

Meanwhile,
an Armenian security expert said that Armenia’s government and media
websites were under cyber-attacks Thursday that originated from
thousands of infected computers located outside the country.

Ruben Muradian said the DDoS, or Denial of Service, attacks came from some 80,000 computers located “in Asia.”

Armenian
political analyst Samwel Martirosian claimed that Azeri authorities
“undoubtedly” were behind the attacks conducted by hackers hired in
Turkey, Pakistan, India and Vietnam.

DDoS attacks occur when a
website is overwhelmed by malicious messages carried out by thousands of
followers, usually with easily downloadable software.