Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 21.05.21:

  • There is still a tense situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces of Armenia.

Despite the agreement reached last week with Russian mediation, Azerbaijani troops are still inside the Armenian state border.

On Thursday evening Armenian Syunik Province governor noted that 30 more Azerbaijanis have trespassed the state border.

According to the governor, the adversary is constantly inciting a war, even though the Armenian side has declared several times that it’s preparing to solve the issue peacefully.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Khoznavar village of Armenia’s Syunik Province noted that the Azerbaijani military on Thursday advanced another 1.5 km in the direction of the village.

And today on Friday, Gor Abrahamyan, Adviser to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, went on Facebook to present details about the recent incident nearby the village of Shosh in Artsakh.

According to him, on Monday, Azerbaijanis fired shots near Artsakh village for 7 minutes.

“The working civilian and conscripts were able to take shelter during this shooting,” he noted.

Armenian defense ministry noted that the situation after the provocations carried out by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border on May 12 and 13 has not changed considerably as of noon Friday.

On Thursday evening, a quarrel took place near Sev Lake region over videos showing Armenian and Azerbaijani servicemen. The dispute was settled by the efforts of the superior command.

The defense ministry on Thursday organized a visit to Syunik Province for the military attachés of the foreign embassies in Armenia to familiarize them with the situation on the ground as a result of Azerbaijani servicemen’s incursion into Armenia.

These military attachés were nearby Sev Lake. hey recorded the presence of the Azerbaijani military in the territory of Armenia, and observed the deployment of Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the area.

  • On Thursday, acting PM Nikol Pashinyan confirmed he is negotiating a new document with Azerbaijan and Russia which is 100% in line with the interests of Armenia.

The paper was first published by Armenia's former ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan. According to Minasyan, Pashinyan was going to sign a new agreement that would damage the interests of the country.

In turn, the acting PM noted that Armenia has reached some agreements with its international colleagues. According to him, those solutions are 100% in line with the interests of Armenia.

Meanwhile, Russian president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov commented on the alleged text of a statement—by acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, as well as Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev.

According to him, random publications should be treated with cautiousness.

"Baku is ready to establish trade relations with Yerevan; but for that, Azerbaijan and Armenia must recognize each other's borders," he noted.

According to him, 30,000 Armenians live in the Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] territories which are currently under the monitoring of Russian peacekeepers.

"We consider them citizens of Azerbaijan, who have been brainwashed by the Armenian propaganda," the Azerbaijani president added.

  • Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, noted that Moscow supports organizing the UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] and surrounding areas.

Zakharova recalled that the April 13 statement adopted by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs notes that the preservation and protection of religious and cultural heritage are among the issues that require additional efforts from both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

However, Azerbaijan distorts—under the pretext of "repair work"—the Armenian historical and cultural monuments in the Artsakh territories it has occupied as a result of the 2020 war.

  • A conscript has died in an Armenian road accident.

At around 7 pm on Thursday, an armored personnel carrier of a military unit rolled about 100 meters into a gorge while traveling.

An investigation is underway to find out the details of this incident.

  • As of Friday morning, 140 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 221,699.

Also, seven more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,371 cases.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 484, the total respective number so far is 210,464.