Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of top news as of 25.04.22:

First, Gevorgyan noted that the international community cannot demand the Armenian people of Artsakh to live under the rule of Azerbaijan.

According to him, Azerbaijan has been carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians, a state that has unleashed three large-scale wars against them in three decades.

He said Azerbaijan is a state trying to rewrite the history of the region in order to deny the mere existence of Armenian heritage and culture, a state that is not shy to publicly declare territorial ambitions against the Republic of Armenia.

He further said it was shocking to see that the person who was the President of this Assembly for two years, the Minister of Foreign of a member state Mevlut Cavusoglu flashing the gesture of a Turkish nationalist terrorist organizations to Armenians.

“Such behavior should be unacceptable and condemned by the Council of Europe,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Eduard Aghajanyan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations, noted that Azerbaijan took advantage of the international community's total concern about the crisis in Ukraine and took rude actions in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

“And if on international platforms Azerbaijani officials often state that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is over and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh can live peacefully in their homes, on the ground Azerbaijan is trying to speed up the last round of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, taking advantage of the fact that the international community has been distracted from Ukrainian crisis,” he added.

It has been highly active in recent weeks after they announced protests against the current government’s actions to protect Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Opposition "Armenia" Faction MP Anna Grigoryan, a group of youth from the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party of Armenia, as well as ordinary citizens today marched to the capital Yerevan from Tigranashen village of Ararat Province.

Ishkhan Saghatelyan, the National Assembly deputy speaker from the opposition "Armenia" Faction, said the opposition will march to Yerevan from the symbolic places in Armenia. One of these places is Ijevan city—the hometown of PM Nikol Pashinyan—, and an opposition march to Yerevan started from there Monday.

Also, an awareness march of the Resistance Movement is scheduled today in Yerevan.

The opposition youth held protest actions, with the flags of Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh), at the Yerevan universities.

First, they placed the flag of Artsakh at the yard of the Armenian State University of Economics, after which they released colored smoke into the air—and as a sign of their fight.

The participants of this protest action urged the university students to join the fight that has started for Artsakh and sovereignty.

Holding a huge flag of Artsakh, they then continued their awareness campaign in the other Yerevan universities as well.

However, the police dragged and apprehended an opposition member participating in this demonstration.

The other participants were shouting "Shame on you," "fight," and "We will not retreat, we will fight!"

In a wide-ranging interview broadcast on state television on Monday, Lavrov said the risk of a nuclear conflict must not be underestimated and that the core of any agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine would depend largely on the military situation on the ground.

  • About 5.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, the UN says, noting that the outflow has slowed since the start of the war.

As Europe mobilises to accommodate the growing number of Ukrainians fleeing the country – now more than four million – stateless Ukrainians are fighting a losing battle for protection and recognition. Not recognised as nationals by Ukraine or any other state under the operation of its laws, stateless Ukrainians, who number approximately 40,000, are denied access to basic rights and have been the targets of pervasive discrimination as they seek refuge abroad

  • The UK government says it believes 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion two months ago.

The UK defense secretary, Ben Wallace, estimated Russia's losses on Monday as a quarter of its pre-invasion strength, with more than 2,000 armored vehicles knocked out, including at least 530 tanks, as well as 60 aircraft

  • Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the sides discussed the Ukrainian conflict.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also had a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Expressing that they are ready to provide all possible assistance during the negotiation process and offer the necessary support, including mediation, Erdogan said that Ankara is positively considering providing security guarantees to Kyiv.