By Shant Krikorian

There is no doubt that the recent demise of the Hungarian justice system has come at the helm of Azeri interest in the Hungarian bond market.

Only about two weeks ago did the Hungarian State Debt Management Agency announce its auctioning of treasury bonds in an effort to ease pressure from the IMF and EU directives.According to portfolio.hu and Hungarian business and news weekly Figyelő, Azerbaijan is currently looking to buy Hungarian government bonds at two and three year maturity, estimated at 3billion Euros.

While Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s tenure in office has already been marred by controversy, stop.hu reports that the Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan was finally agreed upon during the prime minister’s last visit to Baku, where the case was tied with Azerbaijan’s bond-purchase offer along with future cooperation in the energy sector.

It still remains unclear what Turkey’s possible role in Safarov’s extradition was, as some Hungarian and Armenian news outlets claimed that Turkey helped facilitate the talks between Hungary and Azerbaijan, and Turkey, itself has expressed strong interest in cooperating with Hungarian refinancing measures.

Hungarian opposition parties, including former 2010 presidential candidate Attila Mesterházy of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) was quick to condemn Orbán’s actions as damaging to Hungarian and European-Democratic interests, stating that “the decision has brought shame to Hungary”.

As of Sunday, the Hungarian Socialist Party has initiated requests for emergency meetings on subjects of constitutional, foreign, and national security affairs for formulating a coherent investigation and follow-up to the Safarov case.