News

On November 20, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan found the idea of exchanging Armenian citizens caught in the Azerbaijani captivity inappropriate and holding protest actions with the demand to release prisoners ‑ senseless.

Over the past day, the positions of the Azerbaijani army were shelled 27 times, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reports.

At the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, while accelerating, an airplane to fly from Moscow to Athens collided with a man who was killed as a result. The remains of his body were found on the flight strip. Earlier, the citizen of Armenia had been deported from Spain to his homeland with a change in Moscow.

The Strasbourg Court has supported a minor girl from Dagestan, who complained about the ineffective investigation into the case on her repeated gang rape.

The entrance to the village of Dattykh, which the authorities of Ingushetia have decided to restore, is blocked by law enforcers, report residents of the republic.

Egyptian law enforcers could detain five residents of Ingushetia for studying in the country without getting permissions for a long stay, suggested the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

The statement of the Chechen authorities about the involvement of a female suicide bomber in the "Islamic State"* (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the "Caucasian Knot") has no substantial grounds. This opinion was voiced by the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

At the court hearing on November 20, advocates of Oyub Titiev stated that the questioning of witness had been completed and public prosecutors had lost their arguments concerning possible pressure on the witnesses from the defendant. The advocates of the rights defender have again requested to release him from custody.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Azerbaijan has removed from journalist Elchin Ismayilli the charges of taking a bribe and abuse of office and mitigated his imprisonment term by two years.

In Moscow, law enforcers have detained Khazvakha Cherkhigov, suspected of involvement in the militant attack on Budyonnovsk in 1995.

A charity action in support of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", was held in the Sakharov Centre in Moscow. The raised money in the amount of 130,000 roubles will be spent on tickets for rights defenders and journalists who want to go to Chechnya and support Titiev, the organizers of the action have stated.

Today, the court continued interrogating Oyub Titiev; and his lawyer Ilya Novikov asked him to tell about cases of threats and pressure on employees of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". "For 18 years, there have been many cases; I don't remember all of them," said Titiev.

The mosque, opened on November 19 in the abandoned village of Charmakh, was the second mosque in eight days reconstructed in the Galanchozh District of Chechnya bordering on Ingushetia. Residents of Chechnya said that with the opening of the new mosque, they had faith appeared in the revival of villages in this territory.

Positions of Azerbaijani militaries in the Karabakh conflict zone were shelled for 30 times during the last 24 hours, the country's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated today.

Members of the oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) have stated that the Georgian Government announced debt amnesty, since "it is in despair and goes for broke."

In Tbilisi, residents of the Pankisi Gorge have joined the protest action held by Zaza Saralidze, the father of a schoolboy killed in Tbilisi, and Malkhaz Machalikashvili, whose son perished in a special operation in Pankisi.

The court has released eight out of 11 activists detained on November 17 in Baku, after fining them. Three participants of the oppositional march were arrested for 20 days each.

The woman, who blew herself up at a checkpoint in Grozny, has been recruited by members of the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, Djambulat Umarov, the Chechen Minister for National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information, believes.

About 50 residents of the village of Berdavan and students of the Yerevan State University (YSU) came out to protest, demanding that the authorities ensure the release of Karen Kazaryan, who was captured in Azerbaijan.

Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny, has testified in court. He has described in detail the events of January 9, when he was detained on suspicion of drug possession. Oyub Titiev reported about his first detention by fighters from a rapid response team (known as GBR) and the second detention, staged "under the law" with participation of inspectors from the road-and-patrol service (known as DPS) and from the investigative team.