Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 27.04.21:

  • Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his immediate family members visited the Kovsakan and Vorotan regions that are now under the control of Azerbaijan. They “hugged” the plane tree and took a respective photo, which has become a subject of discussion on the Internet.

A number of community leaders of Armenia’s Syunik Province claim that it is the Plane Grove, which was handed over to Azerbaijan back on December 18 last year.

The Ministry of Environment issued a statement in this regard noting that the area depicted in the photo is not the Plane Grove state sanctuary, but the continuation of the plane tree habitat continuing along the Tsav River valley and located in Azerbaijan.

But Shikahogh village mayor Nare Ghazaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the tree which was “hugged” by the Aliyev was in the Armenian territory. 

"Aliyev probably crossed the border, was photographed in the Armenian territory."

She claimed that the river in the photo was of Shikahogh. "But of course I cannot say exactly which tree Aliyev was photographed with," she added.

She added that 13 monasteries, 122 churches, 52 fortresses, 523 cross-stones, 4 chapels, 127 school libraries, and 10 state-run and 2 private museums were endangered now.

According to her, the Tigranakert Archaeological Museum-Reserve and more than 800 samples from the carpet museum also have passed under Azerbaijani control.

"Europe has the leverage to finally demand the return of all the Armenian captives in Baku, to end this crime. If Europe wants, it can achieve it. The time has come to realize that problems require solutions,” Bellamy noted.

“We don’t anticipate any change in the military relationship with Turkey,” Kirby told reporters on Monday.

The Pentagon spokesperson stressed that Turkey remains a vital NATO ally, and noted also that Biden’s announcement will not impact joint operations in Syria.

He urged all political forces, the President of Armenia, judges of the Constitutional Court, and especially the opposition factions of the Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia factions of the National Assembly to show a serious attitude towards the arguments presented in the article by the former chief of staff of the Constitutional Court Edgar Ghazaryan.

Ghazayan noted the PM has no right to serve in office after submitting a resignation -according to the Constitution.

"If these arguments aren’t taken into consideration, all the mentioned entities will be viewed as responsible for holding unconstitutional elections that are scheduled to take place soon," Levon Ter-Petrosyan added.

  • As of Tuesday morning, 595 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 214,064 in the country.

Also, 18 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,058 cases.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 801, the total respective number so far is 195,701.

A signature bond not to leave Armenia has been enforced as a pretrial measure against Makaryan.

The investigation continues.