Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 16.06.21:

•             The trial of the criminal case against fourteen Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) will get underway Wednesday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The questionnaire data of these Armenian POWs will be checked at today's court session.

Azerbaijan has set itself the task of judging all participants in the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s—fictitiously attributing torture, inhuman treatment of captured Azerbaijanis, and similar abominations to them.

Without any evidence, the Azerbaijani authorities are simply exacting revenge upon the captured Armenians.

•             Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev commented on the return of 15 Armenian captives on June 12.

15 Armenian prisoners of war have been handed over by Azerbaijan on June 12. Acting PM Nikol Pashinyan confirmed reports that the Armenian side handed over maps of some minefields to the Azerbaijani side.

"Armenia has acted as a guarantor, and the locations of the landmines are correctly marked. Armenia has transferred the maps of 97,000 landmines in the Aghdam region," Aliyev said.

•             President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited Shushi.

Accompanied by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family members' visit to the historic capital of Artsakh, Shushi, which was destroyed by Turkey and Azerbaijan in 1920 and 2020.

It is a clear manifestation of gross violation of international law, xenophobia, genocidal and terrorist policy, the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] MFA reported.

https://news.am/eng/news/649065.html

The Armenian MFA has also issued a statement noting that this visit was preceded by the destruction of the religious, historical, and cultural heritage of the forcibly displaced indigenous Armenian population.

•             Karabakh has opened a criminal case on the Azerbaijani vandalism of the Armenian cemetery of Askeran.

The criminal case has been launched under the Artsakh Criminal Code article on the desecration of a corpse or burial sites on the grounds of national, racial, or religious hatred or enmity.

Unlike Azerbaijan, the graves of Azerbaijanis have been preserved in Armenia for more than 30 years already.

•             The Armenian snap parliamentary elections are coming. The two main rivals are the Armenia bloc - led by second president Robert Kocharyan - and Civil Contract Party - led by acting PM Nikol Pashinyan.

A total of 124 intellectuals have called for supporting the "Armenia" bloc—led by second President Robert Kocharyan—in Sunday’s snap elections.

•             As of Wednesday morning, 99 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 223,904 in the country, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Also, one more death from COVID-19 was registered, making the respective total 4,490 cases.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 78, the total respective number so far is 215,533.

•             NEWS.am Sport reporter Davit Yeghiazaryan has received accreditation for the 16th European Football Championship (Euro 2020)—which was postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic—after the appeal.

On May 20, UEFA had confirmed in an official letter that Yeghiazaryan had been accredited to cover Euro 2020. However, two days after the start of this competition, UEFA announced that the accreditation was not confirmed by the decision of the police of one of the organizing countries; presumably, it was with the intervention of the organizing committee of Azerbaijan.

The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) immediately took action regarding this matter and addressed an official letter to UEFA.

•             The meeting of US President Joe Biden and President of Russia Vladimir Putin was held in Geneva on Wednesday.

According to TASS, Putin and Biden shook hands during the meeting.

The Russian, US and Swiss Presidents took a photo together before the Russian-American summit in Geneva, maintaining social distance.

The photo-taking ceremony was held in front of the main entrance to La Grange Villa where the first Putin-Biden meeting will take place. The presidents took photos and left to hold narrow-format talks.