Armenian News -NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 30.03.21:

The number of casualties from the Armenian side has now reached 2,702.

  • The situation over the Armenia-Azerbaijani borders near Armenia's Syunik Province remains tense following the Nagorno-Karabakh war as some of the Artsakh territories have been handed over to Azerbaijan following the peace statement signed in November.

Azerbaijanis are seen coming closer and closer to Armenian borders near the Syunik Province.

The Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan constantly touches upon this issue, noting that Azerbaijan installations on Syunik roads can’t be substantiated by Soviet borders or GPS.

"As sovereign states, there has never been a demarcation or delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and, moreover, no international document has been signed in that regard," he noted adding that today's Azerbaijani installations have taken place with gross and massive violations of international law, including the requirements of human rights.

  • Azerbaijanis stole bordering in Armenia’s Syunik province resident’s cows and drove them to their territory, Naira Zohrabyan, an MP of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party, wrote on her Facebook.

Shurnukh village resident Gavrush Hakobyan's barn in Shurnukh is located 500 meters on the road from Shurnukh to Kapan town.

According to the famous GPS drawing, the Azerbaijanis is already positioned a few meters away from the barns. On Friday, the Azerbaijanis stole 13 of Gavrush’s mother cows and drove them to the Azerbaijani village of Seytaz.

The farmer's son, along with the Russian peacekeepers, followed the traces of the animals and reached the village, where Azerbaijanis promised the Armenians to return the cattle, but did nothing.

  • The Azerbaijanis have thrown stones at the vehicle transporting the bodies of the fallen soldiers and broke its windows, Irina Yolyan, the deputy mayor of Goris, Armenia, wrote on Facebook Monday.

"These are facts about the enemy’s aggressive behavior, which must be recorded and measures taken. After all, who should ultimately guarantee the right of a peaceful resident to safe travel?" the deputy mayor of Goris wondered.

The criminal case was launched in connection with a March 11 media report that the HALO Trust had handed Artsakh’s minefield maps to Turkish special services and, through it, to safely avoid these minefields during the recent 44-day war.

  • Armenian Ambassador to Israel Armen Smbatyan, who was recalled on the fifth day of the recent Artsakh war for consultations, is still in Yerevan, MFA spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan told NEWS.am.

On October 1, 2020, referring to the supply of weapons by Israel to Azerbaijan, Naghdalyan had said that the Armenian side considers it inadmissible to sell state-of-the-art weapons to Azerbaijan at a time when Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, is carrying out large-scale military aggression against Artsakh and Armenia.

"We have repeatedly informed our Israeli counterparts about this through diplomatic channels," Anna Naghdalyan had noted.

  • The third wave of COVID-19 pandemic keeps claiming lives in Armenia.

As of Tuesday morning, 750 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 191,491 in the country.

Also, 21 more deaths from COVID-19 were reported, taking the respective total of 3,497 cases.

Earlier, the Armenian deputy health minister noted that there are 149 citizens with the coronavirus who are waiting for their turn to be admitted to hospitals.

The American dollar’s (USD) exchange rate against the Armenian dram (AMD) comprised AMD 530.70/$1 in Armenia on Tuesday.

The exchange rate for one euro was AMD 622.94 (down by AMD 1.18), that of one UK pound totaled AMD 730.40 (down by AMD 2.65), and the rate of one Russian ruble made up AMD 6.99 (up by AMD 0.01) in the country.