Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 16.12.2020:

•             Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan has confirmed that several dozen servicemen were taken prisoner by the Azerbaijani side in the direction of Khtsaberd.

"I will personally be consistent so that the perpetrators of this incident be held legally liable," he noted.

Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime on Friday and launched an attack on Hin Tagher, Khtsaberd, Mets Shen, and Hin Shen villages of Artsakh Hadrut region.

There were reports on Tuesday that over 100 servicemen were taken prisoner from Khtsaberd. The Artsakh defense army later has issued a message and noted that the communication with the personnel of several posts in the direction of the villages of Hin Takher and Khtsaberd had been lost.

•             Serviceman Vahe Babayan, born in 2002, sustained Tuesday a fatal gunshot wound.

He was killed under yet unknown circumstances at a guard post of one of the Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] defense army military units located in a northeasterly direction.

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

•             Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the Vorotan village section of Armenia’s Syunik Province. They were deployed there to just monitor the safety of the road.

•             Vova Pashinyan, father of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, has died, founding general director of Nairi Medical Center Harutyun Kushkyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Vova Pashinyan was 80 years old and had been at the hospital for a long time. He was living in Ijevan with his wife.

•             10 out of the 44 prisoners of war, who had returned to Armenia, have various injuries and need treatment, NEWS.am Medicine reports referring to Dr Mikael Samsonyan, the surgery department head of the Yerevan Garrison Hospital.

He examined the POWs right on the spot. There was no need for emergency care, but 10 in need of treatment upon returning home. The soldiers said all these wounds were received during the hostilities. Whether it was real or not, is hard to say; it cannot be ruled out the soldiers said so only because they were still on Azerbaijani territory during the inspection and conversation.

No life-threatening injuries were found. Most of the prisoners of war who returned to the homeland need psychological or psychotherapeutic assistance.

•             Protests continue as people are still demanding Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

Today the picketers have brought with them a scarecrow with the image of Pashinyan.

The situation was also tense Wednesday near the building of the Armenian defense ministry as hundreds of residents of Armenia’s Shirak province, who had learned about the captivity of their relatives, are protesting in front of the Shirak provincial hall. The relatives of the missing servicemen broke down the ministry gate and entered the area of the building.