News

Karen Andreasyan, Ombudsman in Armenia, has stated that the actions of the Yerevan Mayoralty and police aimed to dismantle kiosks are illegitimate and violate human rights.

Robert Sturua, stage director at the Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre, has been dismissed from his position. He believes that this was done because of his oppositional views on the authorities.

Tengiz Kitovani, ex-head of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Georgia, said in his interview to the newspaper "Moskovskaya Pravda" that Alexander Ankvab, Vice-President of Abkhazia, allegedly cooperated with Georgian authorities during the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in 1992-1993. Mr Ankvab has categorically refuted Kitovani's accusations calling them "bedtime stories".

Some refugee families, evicted from the hotel "Abkhazia" in Tbilisi, are filing lawsuits with demand of monetary compensations. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Marina Meshvildishvili, the leader of the coalition of NGOs "Tskhinvali of the Future", who had also lived in the "Abkhazia".

Today the fifth meeting between the ruling coalition and Armenian National Congress was held. The leaders of the delegations refused to answer the journalists’ questions explaining that the discussion of the incident of August, 9, between the police and ANC activists would be continued at the next meeting, August, 19.

Armed and masked people wearing camouflage uniforms in Chechnya kidnapped and carried away in an unknown direction a teacher of a men’s madrasah of Gudermes and three of his pupils, “Memorial” Human Rights Center reports.

A fourteen-years-old resident of Khasavyurt who formerly reported that she had undergone gang rape suddenly altered her evidence. Now she states that all the events took place by her consent, a source in the Investigative Department of Committee of Inquiry (ID CI) of the Russian Federation in Dagestan reports.

An armistice was concluded among residents of the settlement of Shushanovka where several people got injured on August, 12, as a result of a mass scuffle, resident of the settlement Ravzanat Uvaisova reports.

Today Public prosecutor of Kentron administrative district of Yerevan Aram Grigoryan who had formerly been Military prosecutor of Armenia committed suicide. Prosecutor General’s confirmed this information.

Four supposed terrorists whose detention was reported on July, 18, were planning to organize an explosion of a passenger “Sapsan” train following from Moscow to Sr. Petersburg which enjoys great popularity with the politicians and businessmen.

In August publishing of the newspaper “Mestnaya” (“Local”) with a video application will be recommenced in the health resort of Sochi. It was held up about a year and a half ago after an attempt at its Editor-in-Chief Arkady Lander.

Upon the decision of Law Chamber of Armenia, a rapid response team will be formed in the nearest future. It will deal with unlawful actions of law enforcement bodies against the lawyers and protect their rights.

On August, 14, about one hundred people in Sochi gathered for a new meeting of protest against violation of “Olympic law”, i.e. Federal Law No 310. The meeting was held opposite the railway station.

The refugees who were resettled to the new district named Maltakva in the city of Poti demand to provide jobs for them; otherwise they plan to start protest actions.

As reported by the spokesman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ingushetia, seven servicemen were wounded, when a column of Internal Troops were shelled on the Chechen-Ingush border.

Today, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) gave 24 hours for the authorities to release the activists detained on August 9 and accused of hooliganism.

Residents of the house in Zakharov Street in Nalchik, which was ruined in August 2010 in a counterterrorist operation (CTO), state that two apartments have not been rebuilt yet.

Today, the city of Shushi, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), hosted a solemn opening ceremony of the new hotel "Avan-Shushi-Plaza", which was accommodated in the only high-rise building of the city.

The Working Group of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for development of public dialogue and civil society institutes in the Caucasus has expressed its readiness to mediate the conflict between the villages of Gimry and Untsukul in the Republic of Dagestan.

Third anniversary of August 2008 events in South Ossetia; wildfires in southern Russia; mass brawls in Dagestan with casualties and dozens of detainees; trials of oppositionists in Azerbaijan, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of August 8-14, 2011, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".