Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 24.08.21:

  • A regular session of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia was held Tuesday to debate on the program of the new government.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the government's program to the parliament.

"I present the government's action plan for 2021-26 in extraordinary conditions," he said referring to the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] last war.

He noted that the grave consequences of the 44-day war in 2020 resulted in 3,773 casualties, while the whereabouts of 243 soldiers are being unknown, and some of our captured soldiers have not been returned yet by Azerbaijan.

According to him, most of our POWs in Azerbaijan were taken after Russian peacekeepers’ deployment.

"Azerbaijan has not yet signed the mandate of peacekeepers, and it is becoming clear that a number of Baku actions are aimed against Russian peacekeepers, Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), and stability and peace in Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

Referring to the crisis in Armenia, PM said that Pashinyan considers ‘politicization of army’ as a reason for the Azerbaijani attack on Armenia.

The question and answer session with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had started in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, and the situation got tense.

Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan as well as a number of ruling "Civil Contract" Faction MPs did not like the question by opposition "With Honor" Faction lawmaker Anna Mkrtchyan, and they started making noise in the sessions’ hall.

A recess was announced, during which, lawmakers even hit each other with chairs in the sessions’ hall.

The security officers also entered the hall, trying to separate these MPs.

Later, security officials of the Armenian Parliament deleted the footage filmed by the Armenian News - NEWS.am operator from the scuffle in the parliament sitting room.

When a scuffle between pro-government and opposition deputies began, media representatives, among whom was the operator NEWS.am, went to the entrance to the hall. The latter, seeing the open door, entered the hall and filmed the incident. At that time, the head of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Civil Contract party Hayk Konjoryan, pointing to the cameraman, instructed the security officer to pick up the latter's phone and deleted the video.

Moreover, they threatened that if the video about the scuffle is made public, our operator will lose parliamentary accreditation.

  • As of Tuesday morning, 537 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 238,422 in the country.

Also, six more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,768 cases.

  • One of the leaders of the Panjshir resistance, Ahmad Massoud, is looking for options for resolving the conflict with the Taliban.

According to sources, Massoud intends to surrender, but preserve the honor. Given the reputation of his father, known for his successful fight against the Taliban, the surrender of power would be a significant victory for the Taliban.

In the first ten days of August, the Taliban stepped up their offensive against government forces in Afghanistan; on August 15, militants entered the capital and took control of the presidential palace.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have seized several US aircraft, military helicopters, and anti-tank missiles, Al-Arabiya TV reported, citing sources.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevgeniy Yenin said that last week a Ukrainian plane, which was supposed to evacuate Ukrainians from Afghanistan, was seized by unknown persons and taken out on it other passengers to Iran.

On Monday evening, the third plane with citizens evacuated from Afghanistan arrived in Ukraine, there were 98 passengers on board, including 41 citizens of Ukraine.

  • The G20 special summit, dedicated to the crisis situation in Afghanistan, where power has seized the radical Taliban, is due to take place in September this year, Il Giornale reported.

The meeting will take place in the first or third week of the month so as not to overlap with the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, which is also scheduled to take place in September in New York.

It has not yet been decided whether the G20 summit will be held in person in Rome or via videoconference.