Latest on Armenian 1st president's shocking statement, OSCE's Ann Linde is in Armenia, Mar 16 digest

Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 16.03.21:

PETROSYAN

Armenian first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan made a statement on Monday leading the heated discussions on social media.

Ter-Petrosyan demanded the PM Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

The ruling bloc representatives - particularly the MPs - have slammed Ter-Petrosyan's statement. They also noted that during his presidency, the elections have been falsified.

In general, society is expecting Pashinyan's resignation and snap elections.

ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has notified the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe about the Armenian prisoners' issue.

The court informed the Committee of Ministers that 58 of the Armenians were repatriated between December 2020 and February 2021 and that seven of them were presumed dead, according to the Armenian government - however, individual applicants in six cases claim that they did not receive any evidence death of their relatives. Of the 249 Armenians, 72 are still in Azerbaijan, and their capture and detention were recognized by the government of Azerbaijan. With regard to the remaining 112 people, the Azerbaijani government claims that they were unable to identify them among the captives.

OSCE

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Sweden’s FM Ann Linde is in Armenia.

Today she visited the MFA and held a joint conference with the Armenian FM Ara Aivazian.

During the briefing, she welcomed the establishment of a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict zone but expressed deep regret over the deaths and injuries. According to her, the implementation of the provisions of the statement on the ceasefire will allow moving forward in the process to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

Armenian FM, in turn, noted that Azerbaijan and Turkey grossly violated OSCE commitments.

"Throughout the war, Azerbaijan, with the effective assistance of Turkey, committed massive crimes: ethnic cleansing, war crimes against the Armenians of Artsakh, including against civilians, women, children, the elderly, destroyed numerous civilian and cultural heritage sites,” the FM added.

Aivazian also noted that Artsakh's status should be based on the right of Artsakh Armenians to self-determination.

SEARCHES

The search operations for the bodies of the fallen servicemen have resumed Tuesday in Artsakh.

A total of 1,499 bodies have been found so far as a result of the search for the bodies of servicemen killed in the recent Artsakh war.

COVID-19

As of Tuesday morning, 585 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 179,287 in the country.

Also, 12 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 3,277 cases.

The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 292, the total respective number so far is 166,702.

The minister of health told reporters Tuesday that no new strains of COVID-19 have been detected in Armenia yet.

SLAVERY

Three Armenia citizens were held in slavery in Georgia for five years.

Two local residents —a father and a son— have been arrested on charges of human trafficking, News Georgia reports.

The two defendants had promised well-paid jobs to three Armenian citizens in 2015 and 2016 and helped them move to Georgia.

Then they had taken these Armenian nationals to a cattle farm in a village of Ninotsminda and had taken away their documents, threatened to exact revenge upon revenge, and had forced them to work for free. One of these Armenian citizens has managed to escape and tried to illegally cross the Armenian state border. Defendants face from 12 to 15 years in prison.

PROTESTS

A group of protesters closed off one of the streets in downtown Yerevan with garbage cans demanding PM Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

Shortly afterward, police arrived at the scene and cleared the avenue, moving the garbage bins to the sidewalk.

Another street has been closed with benches by the protesters.

Another group of demonstrators arrived at the public relations and information center as the people believe it is running the governmental fake accounts in social media. They threw toilet paper and vegetables toward the doors of the building.

TURKEY

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday he has “serious concerns” over actions by member state Turkey.

He insisted that the alliance was an important platform for resolving disputes involving Ankara, Arab Weekly reports.

OSCARS

Two Armenian cinematographers are nominated for Oscars.

Madeline Sharafian has been nominated for an Oscar for best Animated Short Film for "Burrow."

And Sev Ohanian, one of the producers of "Judas and the Black Messiah," has been nominated for an Oscar in six categories, including Best Picture.