'Welcome to Azerbaijan' sign put up on Armenian road, Armenia hands over 2 Azerbaijanis, 02.02.21 digest

Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 02.02.21:

• Azerbaijani military has put up a 'Welcome to Azerbaijan" sign on the Armenian road.

They also put Azerbaijani flags on the inter-community road leading from Armenia’s Kapan city to Chakaten and a number of other villages; that is, connecting peaceful settlements.

Reports on these facts will be sent to international organizations—including the OSCE, the UN, the CoE (Council of Europe) by the human rights defender office.

• Bodies of nine more Armenian soldiers have been found in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh].

A forensic medical examination has been ordered to determine their identities.

As of Monday, a total of 1,354 bodies were retrieved.

• Russian peacekeepers have mediated for a return of two Azerbaijanis detained by the Armenian National Security Service.

Meanwhile, the medical squad of the Russian peacekeeping contingent conducted the evacuation of 16 Azerbaijani ill servicemen from the Maghavuzi Vank settlement where they were transferred to Azerbaijani doctors.

• European People’s Party has called on Azerbaijan to release Armenian POWs immediately.

EPP PA members called on Azerbaijan to accelerate the exchange of prisoners of war, captives, and bodies of the dead and demand their immediate release, the statement said.

They urged the European Commission to pursue this humanitarian question in the current and future relations with Azerbaijan.

• Armenia has submitted an Inter-State Application against Azerbaijan with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Armenia claimed Convention violations during and in the aftermath of the war waged by Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020.

The Armenian government claims that Azerbaijan has violated the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the right to liberty, the right to property, the right to personal and family life, the right to education, as well as a number of other Convention rights of the population of Artsakh and Armenia.

The government will provide the Court with a large number of evidence regarding the claims already submitted in due course.

• CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas said Syrian mercenaries should leave Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to him, their activities near the CSTO countries pose risks to security.

“We proceed from the premise that any Syrian mercenaries and militants must leave this territory and stop their activities,” he noted.

• The trial of the criminal case against Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and several other former senior officials has resumed Tuesday.

The defendants are accused of violating the constitutional order.

At a previous court hearing, the defense had filed several motions for the recusal of the current members of the prosecution, including of the prosecutor general, from this case.

The court has already announced its decision on these motions; presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan has denied all of them.

During the hearing, Kocharyan referred to the politicization of the criminal case.

"There can be no cases of political events without political components," he noted.

Meanwhile, the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan has allowed Kocharyan to leave Armenia from February 3 to 8.