Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 23.04.21:

  • The situation is still tense in Armenia over the detentions following PM Nikol Pashinyan's visit to Syunik Province on Wednesday. The locals did not allow him to enter their communities. Protests were held in various Syunik communities where the people called Pashinyan a traitor and a capitulator of land.

Later Pashinyan instructed to detain all the organizers of protests.

On Wednesday night nearly 50 people have been detained from their homes.

Protests have been held on Thursday evening near the building of Armenia's Prosecutor General's Office. Protesters even threw eggs at the building.

The clashes have taken place between the protesters and the police. Police apprehended dozens of citizens, and they were forcefully taking them, including the woman.

14 people have been detained for violence charges.

Some lawyers warned that those detained are being treated badly in the police stations.

Goris deputy mayor Menua Hovsepyan - who has been released today -  told reporters that he was indeed treated badly by the police officers. The footage shared proved that there were slight injuries on his face.

The courts released most of the detainees - claiming that their detention reasons are invalid. However, some of them have been charged with hooliganism. (PAKEL BOXOQI VIDEO)

  • Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan promised to resign by the end of April ahead of snap parliamentary elections scheduled for June 20.

However, the day of his resignation is still unknown.

The leader of the My Step faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Lilit Makunts told reporters she could not indicate the exact day of the resignation

There are reports from some experts who think the PM is going to resign on April 24 tomorrow following the Armenian Genocide commemoration events.

Some of them think that he will not resign, but is going to cancel the snap elections.

According to Azerbaijani media, the court has extended his detention.

He is accused of "torturing Azerbaijanis captured during the first Karabakh war."

The Azerbaijani authorities have implemented the practice of convicting all captives who may have fought in the first Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the early 1990s.

"In the post-war situation, I have taken on this responsibility solely for one objective: removing from the shoulders of our people as soon as possible the social catastrophe we faced as a result of the [recent] war unleashed by the enemy against Artsakh," he wrote on his Facebook. "Today we can record that Artsakh has overcome the social crisis and entered the stage of development programs and housing, in connection with which I express my satisfaction and consider the primary social challenges sufficiently overcome."

  • Russian MFA spokesperson has spoken about the opening of the so-called 'war trophy park' in Baku.

"Russia hopes Baku and Yerevan aspire to achieve normalization of their relations, not discord," Maria Zakharova told reporters.

When told that Baku is violating the agreement reached on November 9 by refusing to return the Armenia prisoners of war, Zakharova stated that Russia is actively mediating to smoothen the disagreements between Yerevan and Baku and that the country supports solutions to the problems through the “all for all” formula.

  • An alarm was made about a terrorist attack near the Blue Mosque in Yerevan.

The information department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations informed NEWS.am that the alarm was false.

The information department of the police also mentioned that materials on the case are being prepared.

  • As of Friday morning, 715 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 212,114 in the country.

Also, 15 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 3,984 cases.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 1,123, the total respective number so far is 192,281.