News

Arthur Vanetsyan, a former head of special services, now the leader of the "Fatherland" Party, was detained in connection with an attempt to usurp power and preparation of the assassination of the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, Vanetsyan's defence has stated he is treating it as political persecution.

The militaries of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh have collected the bodies of the servicemen who perished in battles near the city of Shusha and have exchanged them, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported today.

Georgian authorities have yielded to the opposition by starting negotiations on the results of the parliamentary elections. However, the talks may get protracted, the political analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The motor traffic between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will remain by the existing road via Lachin and Shusha, but cars there will be accompanied by Russian peacemakers there, analysts from Baku believe.

To build a new road across the Lachin Corridor to ensure communication of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, a preliminary border demarcation is needed, which will depend not so much on maps as on the actions of topographic groups on the ground, the geographers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe. The delimitation in the Shushi area will be most painful, they have noted.

Almost a third of Stepanakert residents who had left for Armenia during the conflict aggravation have returned back, David Sargsyan, the city Mayor, has informed. The refugees themselves said that they had temporarily settled in Yerevan, but were going to return home.

The Mtskheta District Court has found six minors guilty of killing footballer Giorgi Shakarashvili. All of them have been convicted under several articles of the Criminal Code, with one common one – participation in group violence.

The participation of international structures in resolving the Karabakh crisis is justified, but the world community is behaving passively, Svetlana Gannushkina, a human rights defender, believes. For a long-term peace, guarantees of the preservation of the Armenian enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh are needed, but the international community will not seek concessions from Baku, Oleg Orlov, the head of the board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", is sure.

The population of Karvachar and the surrounding region is leaving en masse with their belongings for Armenia by the road to Vardenis, although Araik Arutyunyan, the president of the unrecognized republic, has promised to maintain control over this highway and resettle the victims in Stepanakert.

As a result of the aggravation of the Karabakh conflict, over 4000 people perished; about 8000 were wounded, tens of thousands became refugees, Vladimir Putin has stated.

Italian law enforcers detained Turko Arsimekov, a native of Chechnya, on suspicion of making forged documents for members of an Austrian terrorist grouping, the Corriere della Sera reported.

For the ninth day already, at least 13 residents of Gudermes have been unreasonably kept in custody by Chechen law enforcers, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports. The human rights defenders express their concern that law enforcers torture the detainees in an attempt to force them to incriminate themselves.

Azerbaijan has imposed a curfew in villages, towns, and cities lost by Nagorno-Karabakh under the terms of the peace agreement. Azerbaijani police stations have been opened in Shusha and Hadrut.

The peace agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh will make it possible to open the road between Yerevan and Syunik, as well as to resume transport communications with Iran through Nakhichevan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced. The road between Karvachar (Kelbajar) and Vardenis will be closed on November 15. At present, it is full of cars in which local residents are leaving Karabakh.

The decision on the appeal against the verdict is being unreasonably protracted, the convicted oppositionist, Tofig Yagublu, said after the court session held in Baku on November 12. He suggested that the court had not yet received an instruction on what the verdict should be.

Today, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh has released data on other 37 military servicemen, who perished in the conflict zone. The total MoD's death toll makes 1339.

A woman from a small village in Dagestan has learned, only at the age of 42, that she had been circumcised in childhood, since it is not customary to discuss such topics, says the "AfishaDaily". Russia should introduce a new article in the Criminal Code, criminalizing all types of mutilation, Yulia Antonova, a lawyer with the "Legal Initiative" Project, believes.

Turkey should participate in the peacemaking operation in the Karabakh conflict zone along with Russian ones as a guarantor of observing the ceasefire agreement, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

The Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation is economically beneficial for Georgia, but the increase of the Russian military presence in Southern Caucasus could negatively affect the regional security, the Tbilisi political analysts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", believe.

About ten people were detained after the end of the opposition rally demanding the resignation of the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported from the venue.