Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Nagorno-Karabakh: Fleeing conflict, facing the unknown

Tatoyan Vazgen
Relief Web
Dec 16 2020

The IFRC is working alongside both Armenian Red Cross Society and Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, in coordination with International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement partners, to support people affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

By Jessica Timings, IFRC

On the outskirts of a small town, a kindergarten that usually resonates with the joyful sound of children is eerily silent. Just three children play quietly in the dusty yard out front. Washing hangs above a rainbow-coloured fence, the fading artwork of small children decorates on the walls inside.

This kindergarten had been closed because of COVID-19, but in the last few weeks its doors have opened to a new group of people in urgent need.

At its peak, around 80 people – mostly women, children and the elderly – were living, sleeping and eating here. The people arrived in waves from areas affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which escalated significantly on 27 September 2020.

One family of eight, a mother, her five daughters and two grandchildren, have been staying in a shared room for the past few days. They left their home almost as soon as the conflict escalated, recalling the walls of their home shaking from shelling close by.

“Our children were afraid,” describes the mother. “One of the boys could not speak for two days. That is when we knew it was not safe.”

The kindergarten has basic washing and cooking utilities, shared by all who stay here. It is unclear how long people will need to stay, and resources generously provided by community members are running low. Food and other essential items are provided by Armenian Red Cross Society, local authorities and other agencies.

Armenian Red Cross Society volunteers also provide psychosocial support to children staying in shelters, and to the wounded in hospitals and their loved ones.

“The humanitarian needs of affected people are diverse, from social and health to psychological issues”, Armenian Red Cross Society Secretary General Anna Yeghiazaryan says. “The Armenian Red Cross Society, which operates throughout Armenia as a neutral, independent organization, is committed to doing everything it can to respond to these needs.”

“As winter arrives, the needs of these people will multiply. We are working to ensure continued access to basic services and necessities, including heated accommodation, electricity, water, and support to host families.”

Though the ceasefire announcement has meant that some have returned to their homes, more are afraid to go back. The family of eight is among those who feel they cannot yet return, but do not know where they can go from here.

Many children are unable to attend school, though some have been able to attend schools near their temporary places of shelter.

“I am in my last year of school, I want to finish. I am planning to continue my education at university next year, but I don’t know whether I will be able to get back to school,” shares one of the young women staying at the kindergarten.

“We want people to know we are here, we exist, we are not forgotten.”

Primary country
  • Armenia
Source
  • International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
Format
  • News and Press Release
Themes
  • Health
  • Shelter and Non-Food Items
  • Water Sanitation Hygiene
Disaster type
  • Epidemic
Language
  • English

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 12/16/2020

Tatoyan Vazgen 
                                        Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Armenian Opposition Calls For General Strike
December 16, 2020
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Opposition supporters demonstrate outside the main government 
building in Yerevan to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation, 
December 12, 2020.
Armenian opposition groups campaigning for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
resignation called for a general strike on December 22 during continuing 
anti-government protests in Yerevan on Wednesday.
“A nationwide strike and a boycott of university classes in Armenia is declared 
starting from 12 a.m. on Tuesday,” said Ishkhan Saghatelian, one of the leaders 
of a coalition of 16 opposition parties that launched the protests following 
Armenia’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan.
“The whole country must be paralyzed so that this scarecrow resigns as soon as 
possible,” Saghatelian told opposition supporters that again marched through the 
city center.
He said that Tuesday will be “the most decisive day” of the opposition push to 
oust Pashinian and install an interim government tasked with holding fresh 
parliamentary elections within a year.
The opposition forces hold Pashinian responsible for the Armenian side’s defeat 
in the war and say he is not capable of confronting new security challenges 
facing Armenia. Their demands for his resignation and the formation of an 
interim government have been backed by President Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian 
Apostolic Church and prominent public figures in Armenia and its worldwide 
Diaspora.
Pashinian again rejected these demands when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service on Wednesday. He reiterated that he still has a popular mandate to 
govern the country and that the opposition wants to “wrest power from the 
people.”
Court Revokes Arrest Warrant For Ex-President’s Son-In-Law
December 16, 2020
Armenia - Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals again overturned on Wednesday a lower court’s 
decision to allow investigators to arrest Mikael Minasian, former President 
Serzh Sarkisian’s fugitive son-in-law prosecuted on corruption charges denied by 
him.
The State Revenue Committee (SRC) moved to arrest Minasian in April after 
charging him with illegal enrichment, false asset disclosure and money 
laundering. A Yerevan court of first instance allowed the arrest in May. The 
decision was overturned on appeal a month later, however.
The SRC responded by broadening the criminal charges leveled against Minasian. 
It said that he had also failed to declare his “de facto” ownership from 
2012-2018 of a 49 percent stake in Armenia’s largest food-exporting company.
A court judge approved the arrest warrant on September 22. According to one of 
Minasian’s lawyers, Mihran Poghosian, the Court of Appeals annulled that 
decision as well.
The lawyers maintain that their client is a victim of “political persecution” 
overseen by the Armenian government.
Minasian enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia when 
it was ruled by Sarkisian from 2008-2018. He is also thought to have developed 
extensive business interests in various sectors of the Armenian economy.
A vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly 
after he was dismissed as ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. According to 
some media reports, the 42-year-old currently lives in Russia.
Baku Accused Of Continuing ‘Provocations’ In Karabakh
December 16, 2020
        • Nane Sahakian
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Azeri military truck drives drives along a street in 
Hadrut town, November 25, 2020
Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian-backed leadership accused Azerbaijan on Wednesday of 
continuing to violate a Russian-brokered ceasefire after dozens of Armenian 
soldiers were taken prisoner in Karabakh’s southwest.
Azerbaijani forces seized over the weekend the last two Armenian-controlled 
villages in the Hadrut district occupied by them during the recent war. Russian 
peacekeepers rushed to the mountainous area and reportedly stopped the fighting 
on Sunday.
Azerbaijani social media users posted late on Tuesday videos of Armenian 
soldiers captured by Azerbaijani army units apparently deployed in the area. 
Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army reported the following morning that it has lost 
communication with some of its troops stationed near Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd, 
the two occupied Hadrut villages.
“Unfortunately, several dozen of our servicemen were taken prisoner in the 
Khtsaberd direction and our defense ministry is now clarifying all circumstances 
of the incident,” the Karabakh president, Ara Harutiunian, said in a televised 
speech aired in the afternoon.
Harutiunian said that the Armenian side is already taking measures to ensure 
their “quick and safe return to the homeland.”
According to Artak Beglarian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, about 60 
Armenian soldiers went missing in the Hadrut area.
“All relevant bodies of Artsakh and Armenia must take immediate steps to 
repatriate the POWs as soon as possible,” Beglarian wrote on Facebook
The Armenian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Azerbaijani attack on the two 
villages as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement that stopped the 
war on November 10.
Baku denied violating the ceasefire on Sunday. It said that the Azerbaijani army 
launched a “counterterrorist operation” after one of its soldiers was killed 
last week.
Harutiunian also accused Baku of resorting to armed “provocations” around three 
Armenian-populated villages located southwest of the Karabakh town of Shushi 
(Shusha), which was also captured by Azerbaijani forces during the war. 
According to local officials, Azerbaijani troops advanced towards the villages 
of Mets Shen, Hin Shen and Yeghtsahogh in recent days, forcing most of their 
residents to flee their homes.
“Karabakh army soldiers and Russian peacekeepers thwarted various provocations 
by Azerbaijani soldiers and last night drove them out of the vicinity of Hin 
Shen,” said the Karabakh leader.
Pashinian Coy About Snap Elections
December 16, 2020
        • Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is interviewed by RFERL, Yerevan, 
December 16, 2020
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that he cannot single-handedly 
call fresh parliamentary elections in Armenia following the recent war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Pashinian also said that he is 
not primarily to blame for the Armenian side’s defeat in the six-week war 
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
The defeat sparked ongoing opposition protests and calls for his resignation and 
the formation of an interim government that would hold snap elections within a 
year. The prime minister has rejected those demands.
“The question is not whether or not the prime minister must resign,” Pashinian 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The question is who decides who must be 
Armenia’s prime minister. The people must decide.”
“Pre-term elections cannot be held only by my will and decision. There has to be 
an agreement on that,” he added without elaborating.
Some representatives of Pashinian’s My Step bloc have indicated that the 
authorities are ready to discuss the possibility of such polls with the Armenian 
opposition. Most opposition groups want the ruling political team to hand over 
power to a transitional government.
A coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties plans to continue its street 
protests in Yerevan in a bid to force Pashinian to resign. It holds him 
responsible for Azerbaijan’s victory and says he is not capable of confronting 
new security challenges facing Armenia and Karabakh.
“I consider myself the number one person responsible [for the defeat] but I 
don’t consider myself the number one guilty person,” Pashinian said in this 
regard.
The embattled premier also dismissed critics’ claims that he precipitated the 
six-week war with a reckless policy on the Karabakh conflict.
“The only way to avoid the war was to give up [a peace deal on] Karabakh’s 
future status,” he said. “The situation reached a point where the war was 
inevitable. We analyzed [the situation] and found that it is possible not to be 
defeated, and if is possible not to be defeated we must not surrender.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

COVID-19: Armenia reports 1174 new cases, 1296 recoveries in one day

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 11:02,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. 1174 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 151,392, the ministry of healthcare said today.

1296 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 129,990.

3537 tests were conducted in the past one day.

25 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 2581.

The number of active cases is 18,179.

The number of patients who had coronavirus but died from other disease has reached 642 (5 new such cases).

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Over 70 Soldiers Missing as Standoff with Azeris in Hadrut Escalates

Tatoyan Vazgen

December 16,  2020



Artsakh Hadrut region came under attack by Azerbaijani forces

  • Defense Ministry Loses Contact with Soldiers
  • Azeris Blockade Russian Peacekeepers, Claims Pashinyan
  • Tensions Mount for Residents of Shushi-Adjacent Villages

The fate of more than 70 Artsakh Armed Forces soldiers is unknown after Azerbaijani forces continue an armed standoff in Artsakh’s Hadrut district, which began late last week when they attacked the Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages in an effort to seize them.

Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan on Wednesday, in an address to the nation, confirmed that “several doze” Artsakh soldiers were taken captive by Azerbaijani soldiers around the Khtsaberd village. He also said that the Artsakh Defense ministry was attempting to “clarify” all circumstances.

Harutyunyan also revealed that Azerbaijani forces continued their “provocations” around the Hin Shen village near Shushi, as well as Berdadzor, another village near the area. both villages are under Armenian control following the November 9 agreement that ended the war, but saw the forces surrender of Artsakh territories to Azerbaijan, including Shushi.

Azerbaijani forces attacked Hadrut’s Hin Tager and Khtsaberd villages late Friday and into Saturday, when Russian peacekeeping forces, which were not stationed at the line of contact, arrived and attempted to quell the situation.

While military skirmishes ended and the Russian peacekeepers claimed to have control of the villages, it appears that the Azerbaijani forces have occupied the Hin Tagher village and have not retreated to their positions behind the line of contact.

Footage aired over social media networks by Azerbaijan late on Tuesday, showed dozens of Armenian servicemen being hauled off by Azerbaijani soldiers, creating panic and confusion both in Artsakh and Armenia.

On Wednesday, Armenia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the veracity of the reports and well as the video’s authenticity. The Chief of Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces, Colonel-General Onik Gasparyan, went to Artsakh to investigate and to take necessary action.

Artsakh authorities also reported on Wednesday that communications links with the soldiers in Khtsabert village was lost.

The Ministry of Defense of Artsakh announced in a statement that Tuesday evening, due to “unknown circumstances” it lost contact with military personnel of several combat positions of the Defense Army deployed in the direction of the Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages of Hadrut.

“Search operations continued during the entire night and today morning. With the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, active steps are being taken to determine the likelihood of the Armenian servicemen’s capture for launching necessary actions in the event of such confirmation,” the Artsakh Ministry of Defense said.

In a bombshell announcement, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during an extensive interview with Azatutyun.am, claimed that the Russian peacekeepers were also surrounded by Azerbaijani forces and their communication links were also cut off.

“Due to the terrain and the developments, there are some problems with communication. Furthermore, the Russian peacekeepers also have these problems, and we have somewhat of a crisis situation there,” Pashinyan told Azatutyun.am’s Artak Hambartsumyan on Wednesday.

Pashinyan added that the standoff taking places in Hadrut, as well as the Armenian-controlled villages near Shushi should be viewed as part of the same operation being carried out by Azerbaijan.

On Saturday, as tensions escalated in Hadrut, Pashinyan, through his spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan, said that the Russian peacekeepers were responsible for the situation, with critics blasting Pashinyan’s nonchalant approach to a potential violation of the November 9 agreement.

He explained the matter during the Azatutyun.am interview, saying that the November 9 agreement stipulates that the Russian peacekeepers were tasked with monitoring the area, saying that the Armenian government was pursuing the issue through diplomatic channels.

Pashinyan did not question, nor was he asked by Azatutyun.am as to why the Russian peacekeepers were not stationed at the line of contact in Hadrut when the Azerbaijan’s incursion attempts began. At the time it was reported that Azerbaijan used heavy artillery and military equipment when it attacked the Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages.

“This situation [the missing soldiers] is totally unacceptable,” said Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan. “It must be quickly and completely investigated by law enforcement agencies to determine all circumstances and the identify those who are responsible.”

“The authorities of Artsakh and Armenia are obliged to take immediate action to repatriate all our prisoners of war as soon as possible. In addition, it is necessary to provide clear information to the families of the prisoners of war and conduct maximally transparent public communication to avoid disinformation and unnecessary tensions,” Beglaryan added.

COVID-19: Armenia reports 1077 new cases, 1592 recoveries in one day

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 11:15,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. 1077 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 146,317, the ministry of healthcare said today.

1592 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 123,474.

3057 tests were conducted in the past one day.

29 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 2445.

The number of active cases is 19,785.

The number of patients who had coronavirus but died from other disease has reached 613 (7 new such cases).

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Evidence of widespread atrocities emerges following Karabakh war

Tatoyan Vazgen
EurasiaNet.org
Dec 9 2020
Ulkar Natiqqizi, Joshua Kucera Dec 9, 2020

Russian peacekeepers search for unexploded ordinance in Nagorno-Karabakh (Russian military handout)

A steady stream of videos depicting shocking atrocities by Azerbaijani soldiers against Armenian civilians and prisoners of war has emerged on social media. 

The videos, shot by soldiers and distributed on various Telegram news channels, depict a wide variety of torture, humiliations and mutilations of corpses. There have been several executions of captives shown, and at least two live beheadings.

The authenticity of most of the videos has yet to be confirmed, and the Azerbaijani government has promised to prosecute all such crimes. In a November 21 statement, the state prosecutor’s office announced it was opening a criminal case to investigate reports of “insulting the bodies of Armenian servicemen killed during the fighting for the liberation of our lands, as well as inhumane treatment of captured Armenian servicemen.”

“The perpetrators of such illegal acts will be identified and brought to justice,” it continued. It added, however, that according to initial investigations “many videos were found to be fake.”

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, Kanan Zeynalov, told Eurasianet on December 8 that the investigations were continuing. “It is too early to say anything today,” Zeynalov said.

International human rights groups also are investigating. Human Rights Watch issued a report on December 2 on humiliations of captured Armenian soldiers, but it has not yet addressed the more serious atrocities. “Extrajudicial executions and despoiling dead are separate war crimes and we are still looking into it. It’s complicated, as it’s hard to verify the videos,” the organization’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, Giorgi Gogia, told Eurasianet.

A smaller number of videos have emerged showing apparent Armenian atrocities against Azerbaijanis, including at least one execution. The Armenian authorities have not yet announced any criminal investigations into the reports. Gogia said Human Rights Watch also is investigating reports of Armenian atrocities against Azerbaijanis.

The steady drip of the videos has traumatized Armenians already reeling from their crushing loss in the 44-day war, in which Azerbaijan managed to take back a large part of the territories that it had lost in the last major war between the two sides in the 1990s.

“The videos of atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces against Armenian servicemen, as well as the mutilation of the bodies and photos circulating on social media, deepen the anxiety of family members [of current prisoners], the anxiety over the return of their relatives,” a group of Armenian civil society groups wrote in a December 3 letter to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The issue is being hotly discussed in Azerbaijan, especially following the release of the second live beheading video on December 7.

A large number of Azerbaijanis refuse to believe the videos are real and believe they are part of a negative PR campaign.

One prominent political analyst, Arastun Orujlu, wrote on Facebook that “personally, I am convinced that these videos are fake,” part of a Russian-orchestrated campaign to discredit Azerbaijan. “It is an attempt to portray the victorious army of Azerbaijan to the world like a criminal gang. We must do our best to prevent this,” he wrote.

Many other Azerbaijanis have been skeptical of the government’s sincerity in its promise to appropriately prosecute the crimes and have demanded accountability in the process.

A group of civil society activists issued a statement calling on Azerbaijani prosecutors “treat the images on social media as a violation of international humanitarian law” while also asking the international community to pressure Armenia to do the same.

“I have never said that the Interior Ministry or the State Security Service should arrest anyone. But this is already a red line,” wrote activist Ilkin Rustamzada on Facebook. “Anyone who films an Armenian being beheaded, or beheads him, should be severely punished. Anyone who puts an ISIS brand on the nation’s war has to be punished.” 

One local NGO, the Baku Human Rights Club, is collecting videos of atrocities from both sides and is working with international partners to help authenticate them. “If [a video] isn’t authentic then we need to know that it’s not authentic,” the group’s chairman, Rasul Jafarov, told Eurasianet. “But if it is real, the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case, the videos need to be analyzed as part of that criminal case and those found guilty should be brought to justice.”

Given the large number of videos that have emerged, and the fact that soldiers apparently felt comfortable enough to show off the atrocities, some analysts have said that the behavior was at least implicitly condoned by the authorities.

“These are widespread, consistent and systematic war crimes, tolerated or even encouraged by commanders,” wrote Ryan O’Farrell, an independent military analyst who has closely followed open sources on this conflict, on Twitter.

“[B]etween the number of videos, their frequency and the number of participants, it’s impossible to not assume that the Azerbaijani state has given its tacit approval to these war crimes. These aren’t ‘bad apples.’ This is systematic,” O’Farrell added. “I’ll believe otherwise when the Azerbaijani government arrests the hundreds of soldiers who proudly filmed their participation in executions, torture, beheadings and mutilations of civilians and POWs.”

Some Azerbaijani analysts disagree.

“In order to protect the positive image of the country, the perpetrators need to be found and punished,” Fuad Shahbaz, a political and military analyst, told Eurasianet. “Some foreign experts are skeptical, but I think that servicemen who took part in these videos will be punished. It may not be in two days, ten days, 20 days, but I think it will happen.”

Still other Azerbaijanis have cheered the abuse of Armenians. Elvin Basqalli, a news presenter at the Azerbaijani network Space TV, wrote on Facebook that Armenians deserved revenge after crimes against Azerbaijanis, citing the Khojaly massacre of the first Karabakh war and the bombing of civilian targets in Ganja and Barda in this war.

“I appreciate such treatment of Armenians,” Basqalli wrote. “If the Armenians had known at the time that they would be beheaded, they would not have committed such tragedies.” Other Azerbaijanis objected and called for him to be fired from his post, but as of the time this piece was posted he remained in his job.

 

With reporting by Ani Mejlumyan.

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of The Bug Pit.

Ulkar Natiqqizi is a reporter based in Baku.

Catholicos Aram I calls on PM Pashinyan to step down

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 13:16, 8 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I has called on Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan to resign and allow parliament to elect a new leader.

“The Armenian people are deeply alarmed,” the Catholicos said in a statement. The defeatist emotional state has caused uncertainty and despair.”

He noted that besides losing the large part of Artsakh, Armenians also lost “national dignity and pride”. “We have large numbers of victims, captives, wounded and refugees. There is not a single Armenian around the world who doesn’t feel the suffering of this huge loss of the nation. The people are demanding a comprehensive and clear accountability about this horrible tragedy,” he said, calling on PM Pashinyan to step down.

“We expect that an interim government of accord led by a new elected prime minister will prioritize holding without delay early elections of parliament,” he concluded.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

ECHR applies interim measure for 23 Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Tatoyan Vazgen

 

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 18:27, 8 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The ECHR has decided to apply interim measure for another 23 individuals that have been taken hostage by Azerbaijan as a result of the war against Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports lawyers Artak Zeynalyan and Siranush Sahakyan wrote on their Facebook pages.

5 of the hostages are civilians.

The ECHR has demanded documented information from the Azerbaijani government about the detention place and conditions of another 23 Armenian war prisoners. The court has set a deadline of December 7, 9, 10, 11 and 14 to provide the required information.

‘’In addition, the Government of Azerbaijan, in response to the inquires made by the European Court in previous cases, gave a evasive and incomplete answer, in particular, did not give a documented answer to where and in what conditions the Armenian prisoners of war are kept, have they been submitted for a  medical examination, stating that the details will be presented” in the near future’’, the lawyers said.

CivilNet: Azerbaijani troops enter Lachin region

Tatoyan Vazgen
CIVILNET.AM

2 December, 2020 00:21

Citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Russian RIA Novosti news agency reports that Azerbaijani troops have entered the Lachin region. The area served as a land connection between Armenia and Karabakh, and includes the main road between the two territories.

Lachin is the last of the three regions to be passed to Azerbaijan per the “end of war” trilateral statement signed on November 9 by Armenia’s prime minister, and Azerbaijan’s and Russia’s presidents. The Aghdam region in Karabakh’s east and Kelbajar region in the northwest were handed over to Azerbaijan on November 20.

According to the agreement, a five kilometer corridor managed by the Russian peacekeepers will remain in Lachin to continue to connect Armenia and Karabakh.

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it ensures the safety of citizens passing through the Lachin corridor, and is carrying out round-the-clock monitoring of the ceasefire regime.

Several villages near the corridor will also remain outside Azerbaijan’s control but it remains to be seen whether residents will feel secure enough to continue their lives in the area. 

Ural Airlines launches Moscow-Gyumri flights

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 16:47,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Ural Airlines launched regular flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport to Gyumri’s Shirak airport from November 30, the Armenia International Airports company said.

The roundtrip flights will be conducted once a week on Mondays.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan