The Turan Blind Alley of the Hungarian “opening to the East”
November 5, 2012 -
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New Eastern Europe newsletter
On August 31st 2012, Hungary released the killer of an Armenian soldier back to his native Azerbaijan, where he was instantly pardoned and welcomed as a national hero. As a result, Armenia suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary, and while the criticism was mainly targeted at Azerbaijan, the international community has once again taken an alarmed look at the country governed for the last two years by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Does the eruption of the scandal signify a failure of the “opening to the East” policy promoted by Budapest? Or perhaps it is just a side effect of the consistent policy of developing friendly relations with the most important actors in the East?