Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 28.09.21:

• The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a report on the humanitarian consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan during the autumn session of the PACE.

The report was adopted with 47 “in favor”, 16 “against” and 3 votes of abstinence.

The report was drafted by Irish parliamentarian Paul Gavan, who provided the information based on the results of his visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan. It mainly concerns the dead, the people who went missing and the wounded, POWs, the claims about crimes and war crimes and other illegal acts, mines and unexploded ordnance, displaced persons, border incidents, cultural heritage, and hate speech.

• Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs Dereck Hogan and National Security Council Senior Director for Europe Amanda Sloat, met on September 27 with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The co-chairs discussed their successful facilitation of the first joint meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs since November 2020, held last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. 

Meanwhile, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said that while in New York, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs had reached an agreement with Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume their working trips to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).

• Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili said that Tbilisi can become a platform for talks between Baku and Yerevan.

He recalled that in June, Georgia had facilitated the release of 15 captured Armenian soldiers in Azerbaijan, as well as the transfer of some Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) minefield maps to Azerbaijan.

"To continue this process at a higher level, we propose our fraternal countries to start negotiations in Tbilisi, which can become a permanent platform," the PM added.

• Based on official data, 45 Armenian captives are detained in Baku, Siranush Sahakyan, an advocate of Armenian POWs in ECHR, told Armenian News - NEWS.am.

Sahakyan noted that there are official and non-official data regarding the Armenian captives detained in Azerbaijan that are based on the results of fact-finding activities.

“Based on our data, there are another 80 Armenian captives detained in Azerbaijan,” Sahakyan added.

• The staff of the Armenian Human Rights Defender has received reports that the Azerbaijani servicemen have been setting fires since Sunday near the Verin Shorzha and Nerkin Shorzha, Ayrk villages of Gegharkunik Province. 

It is mostly about the residents' grasslands and pastures which are being destroyed by fires, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan reported on Monday.

The checking of the reports show that these subversive crimes against the Armenian civilian population are committed intentionally.

• The Public Health Organization on Tuesday was holding a protest in front of the Armenian health ministry.

They demanded that the health minister invalidate the order according to which as of October 1, all employees in the country must either be vaccinated or take a COVID-19 test twice a month.

The Public Health Organization president Dr. Hovhannes Gevorgyan noted that the order violated human rights. 

Subsequently, the police apprehended the doctor and several others for violating the state order. 

• As of Tuesday morning, 772 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 259,779 in the country.

Also, 13 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 5,277 cases.