Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia’s top news as of 18.02.2020.

  • Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultation yesterday to discuss the circumstances and causes of recent deaths in the Armed Forces. Armenian defense minister Davit Tonoyan, army chief Artak Davtan, prosecutor general Artur Davtyan and other representatives of law enforcement agencies attended the meeting.

Army chief Artak Davtyan met with the members of the Armenian parliament on Tuesday morning to discuss the disturbing events in the army.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Davtyan said he is not going to resign and promised reshuffle in the army. Davtyan said the court is to decide whether anyone has to be accountable for the deaths of soldiers.

Earlier, Ruben Melikyan, co-founder of the Path of Law NGO, had announced about becoming a "No" campaign side in the referendum. He had noted that 61 lawyers had joined this initiative.

According to “No” campaigners, they will not campaign against the referendum.

“Our goal is to make the referendum more manageable,” they said.

When inspecting luggage of an Iranian citizen flying to Kyiv from Yerevan, a large consignment of opium, hidden in sweets, was discovered. The lady planned to deliver the drug to the UK through Ukraine. The lady and her accomplice have been detained.

The court reached this decision while considering the matter of constitutionality of the aforesaid law’s provision on the prohibition of a police officer being a member of a religious organization.

The legal defender of Barseghyan reiterated that the charges brought were unfounded and were “exclusively” based on Karapetyan's testimony.

Barseghyan, Karapetyan are indicted in the same criminal case together with third President Serzh Sargsyan who is charged with misusing government reserve funds.