Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 27.09.21:

• Exactly one year ago, on September 27, 2020, at 7:10 am, Azerbaijan launched large-scale military aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). At the same time, the adversary launched an attack—using air force, artillery, drones, including the shelling of peaceful settlements—in almost all directions of the line of contact.

The hostilities took place along the entire Artsakh-Azerbaijani line of contact, as well as in some parts of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and lasted 44 days.

On the first day of the war unleashed by the Turkish-Azerbaijani forces, martial law and a general mobilization were declared in Armenia and Artsakh.

During the 44 days of the war, Azerbaijan used weapons—i.e., cluster missiles, phosphorous weapons, and drones—that are prohibited by international law, and targeted the civilian population and infrastructure of Artsakh and Armenia. 3,781 soldiers and civilians from the Armenian side have been killed in the Artsakh war.

• On September 25, the Azerbaijanis placed an Azerbaijani flag at the position they occupy at the Verin Shorzha village section of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province. The prefect of Verin Shorzha, Artyom Yeranosyan, told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Earlier, Garnik Davtyan, an expert on Azerbaijan, had posted a video on Facebook showing Azerbaijani soldiers putting up their flag.

• The autumn—and this year final—session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will be held in Strasbourg, France, from Monday to Thursday. According to the press service of this organization, the main item on the agenda will be climate change.

On the first day, the PACE delegations will also debate on the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict’s humanitarian consequences for Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The session also discussed the Armenian snap parliamentary elections.

According to PACE delegation head George Katrougalos, Parliamentary elections in Armenia met the standards of the Council of Europe.

According to him, the only exception was the rather high entrance threshold - 5 percent for parties and 7 percent for the coalition. As it turns out that as a result, about 25 percent of voters were not represented in parliament.

• As of Monday morning, 462 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 259,007 in the country.

Also, 13 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 5,264 cases.

As of Sunday, a total of 408,535 inoculations against COVID-19 have been administered in Armenia, of which the first dose was 264,695, and the second dose—143,840.

• The US State Department responded to an interview with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for CBS, in which he said that Ankara is going to buy a second batch of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.

“We urge Turkey at every level and opportunity not to retain the S-400 system and to refrain from purchasing any additional Russian military equipment,” said a State Department spokesperson when asked about Erdogan’s comments.

The spokesperson noted that the US make clear to Turkey that any significant new Russian arms purchases would risk sanctions and in addition to those imposed in December 2020.