Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the latest news on the Nagorno-Karabakh issues as of 23.11.2020:
• Another footage has been disseminated by the Azerbaijanis showing the Armenian soldier in captivity.
The footage has captured Erik Khachatryan, 18, who was fighting in Jabrayil and went missing after October 12.
According to opposition party MP Naira Zohrabyan, the Red Cross has already started doing its job.
• European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has granted petitions on the protection of the rights of the 17 Armenian military servicemen who were captured during the Azerbaijani war against Artsakh, Armenia's ex-justice minister Artak Zeynalyan wrote on his Facebook.
The ECHR has requested documented information from the government of Azerbaijan on the Armenian soldiers' whereabouts, conditions of detention, and medical service. The court has set a deadline for Nov. 27 to provide the required information.
Relatives of the missing servicemen, in turn, gathered Monday in front of the Armenian defense ministry in Yerevan demanding the authorities answer their questions on the soldiers' whereabouts.
Meanwhile, according to human rights activist Siranush Sahakyan, there are over 100 Armenian captives in Azerbaijan. She and other human rights activists are collecting pieces of evidence to identify those people and confirm the fact of captivity.
• Footage has been shared capturing the people in Vazgenashen village of Artsakh leaving their homes in the presence of Azerbaijani forces and being mocked by them.
The Vazgenashen village of the Martuni region will also be under the control of Azerbaijan in the execution of the controversial statement signed on November 9 by Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani leaders.
The truce calls for the deployment of almost 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to the conflict zone, where Azerbaijan will receive significant territorial concessions, including a strategically important town of Shushi.
• [UPDATE] A total of 2,334 refugees have returned to Stepanakert from Armenia in a day.
And since November 14, over 11 thousand residents of Nagorno-Karabakh have already been brought back home to Karabakh with the help of Russian peacekeepers.
• The humanitarian demining of territories in Nagorno-Karabakh has kicked off.
Russian specialists will check the territory where stationary posts of the Russia’s military contingent will be built in the future.
The demining is being done at the request of the Artsakh administration.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu visited Armenia on Saturday.
The Russian FM held many meetings with the leadership of the country, including Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and president Armen Sarkissian.
Later on Saturday, the Russian interdepartmental delegation has left for Baku
• A Baku court has 'detained' in absentia Armenia’s ex-defense minister Seyran Ohanyan, against whom Azerbaijan files a criminal case on genocide.
On November 11, the military court of Baku had considered the respective lawsuit and remanded Ohanyan in custody in absentia.
• The mercenaries who were sent to Azerbaijan to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh have not yet returned to Syria; moreover, there are rumors that more militants will move to the region.
American journalist Lindsey Snell, who actively covered Turkey’s sending of mercenaries and militants to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone tweeted that the families of Syrian mercenaries are not going to be shipped to Azerbaijan.
"SNA [i.e., Syrian National Army] sources say the Syrians are still in Azerbaijan. There are talks of sending more (fighters)," she noted.
• Armenian deputy defense minister Gabriel Balayan has been dismissed in this capacity. The report was confirmed Monday by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on defense and security and ruling My Step faction member Andranik Kocharyan.
