Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 20.01.2021:

• The 44-year-old man from the Hadrut Province of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was found dead yesterday in the Artsakh territories that are now under the Azerbaijani control.

He was the son of Sasha Karakhanyan, who is from Hadrut and had returned about a month ago after being in captivity.

Vrezh Karakhanyan, Sasha Karakhanyan’s grandson, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the body of his uncle Arsen Karakhanyan was found by people who were conducting a search in Hadrut. Azerbaijanis had murdered Arsen and buried him in one of the villages of Hadrut.

Arsen’s family definitely found out that he was a captive on January 6 when the Azerbaijanis disseminated a video of him on social networks.

• The body of a fallen soldier was found in Karabakh's Jabrayil as a result of search operations yesterday.

A forensic medical examination has been ordered to identify him.

No search activities will be carried out today, as it is a day of mourning in Azerbaijan—Black January, or Bloody January.

The bodies of a total of 1,247 fallen servicemen and civilians have been found so far.

Meanwhile, the body of another missing soldier son has been found. The soldier's father Gurgen Vardanyan has earlier in January broken the gates of the Armenian defense ministry with a car.

• The US has signed a memorandum and now Turkey gains rights to Christian heritage in the region.

In its final hours the Trump administration signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding between the United States and Turkey, giving Turkey legal rights to the vast religious and cultural heritage of the region's indigenous peoples and other minorities, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

The agreement was concluded in response to a request from the Turkish government over a year ago.

Although the final text of the memorandum has not been made public, Turkey's request calls for restrictions on the import of virtually all works of art from prehistoric to modern times to the US, ANCA added.

• A 70-year-old lonely woman dies from frostbite in Armenia's Gyumri, President of Shirak Center NGO Vahan Tumasyan wrote on his Facebook.

According to him, it was a principle to do everything possible to make sure nobody died from frostbite in Gyumri this year.

"The details are being specified. Nobody living at her registered address had addressed us with the request to receive firewood. There was no electricity consumption code, and she might not have resided at that address," he added.

• Prominent Armenian literary critic, publicist, and art critic Stepan Topchyan has passed away.

He was the son of literary critic Edvard Topchyan, the brother of writer and literary critic Aleksandr Topchyan, and the father of philologist and translator Aram Topchyan and conductor Edvard Topchyan (Eduard Topchjan), the principal conductor and artistic director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Armenia Special Investigation Service has discontinued a criminal case against an opposition Homeland Party leader and the former director of the National Security Service (NSS) Artur Vanetsyan, Pastinfo newspaper reported.

The criminal case has been initiated on alleged abuse of power during his tenure as NSS chief. After months of investigation, the SIS could not find any grounds and, ultimately, decided not to prosecute Vanetsyan on the grounds of lack of corpus delicti.

For the same reasons, the SIS has decided to discontinue the criminal case opened against the ex-chief on charges of going beyond official powers.

• Armenia deputy education, science, culture, and sports minister Narine Khachaturyan has been sacked.

Earlier, the deputy minister had informed that she would submit her resignation letter and that she was resigning because of the war, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and the losses.