Armenia News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 30.01.2020:

·       A soldier has died in Artsakh, Armenian MOD's spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan told Armenian News - NEWS.am. Vahram Avagyan (born in 2000), sustained a fatal gunshot wound on Thursday. An investigation is underway to find out the details of the incident.

·       A meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani FM - Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov- continued Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, Armenian MFA spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan wrote on Facebook.

The meeting is held with the mediation and participation of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The FMs met Wednesday and as Naghdalyan noted a broad range of issues related to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are being touched upon during the meeting.

·       The ECHR has ruled Azerbaijan violated two articles of the Convention in respect of Armenian shepherd Manvel Saribekyan who was taken into Azerbaijan’s captivity in September 2010.

Azerbaijan called him an Armenian “saboteur”. Saribekyan reportedly hang himself on October 5, while Armenia claimed he was either killed or forced to commit a suicide. Azerbaijan refused to return his body for a month, but on November 4, Azerbaijan handed his body to the Armenian side under the deal reached by Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian leaders.

Thus, the ECHR ruled there has been a violation of the right to life, inadequacy of the investigation and a violation of the prohibition of torture. Azerbaijan should pay over EUR 60 thousand as moral damage and legal costs.

Meanwhile, an Azerbaijani judge, Latif Huseynov, has a 'dissenting opinion' on the ruling. According to him, the present complaint should have been declared inadmissible since it was filed after a six-month period. Each court ruling is posted with the votes for it and one of the judges voted against in all respects, it is not difficult to guess who exactly.

·       The French President Emmanuel Macron was present Wednesday at the event organized by the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF).

He spoke about Armenian Genocide denial, French-Armenian relations and Artsakh issue.

According to him, the task of France is to be next to Armenia. He also noted that France will continue investing in ‘New Armenia’.

Speaking on Artsakh issue, Macron noted France is committed to its role of mediator, and no one is interested in maintaining the status quo.

Referring to Armenia Genocide denial, he said one cannot create a big story on lies, politics on revisionism or denial. Macron also spoke with Turkish historian Taner Akcam and noted that the latter’s work against attempts to oblivion and denial is an important contribution to the deep political debate with the Turkish leadership.

Macron also said he doesn’t reject the idea of criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide. 

By the way, earlier, Macron discussed the Karabakh conflict issue over the phone with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

·       Amid the outbreak of coronavirus infection in China, the Armenian doctors check temperature of all passengers at the airport, regardless of the country they arrived from, and naturally the focus is on those who come from China.

According to epidemiologist at the medical checkpoint of the airport Hayk Karapetyan, the number of passengers coming from China varies from 20 to 30.

Meanwhile, the situation over the virus was discussed during the meeting of Deputy FM Avet Adonts and Tian Erlong, China’s ambassador to Armenia. Ambassador Tian noted the readiness of the Chinese side to continue close cooperation with the Armenian side to resolve issues over spread of coronavirus, which has already killed 170 people.

Adonts noted that the Embassy is in constant touch with 400 citizens of Armenia currently residing in different provinces of China, 7 of whom in Hubei.

The virus also spread to 16 other countries, including Japan, France, Germany, the US and others.