News

Moscow will not be able to support Nagorno-Karabakh's independence and its belonging to Azerbaijan for a long time. Although the parties have signed a ceasefire agreement, the conflict has not been settled; and the OSCE Minsk Group may soon start discussing the status of the unrecognized republic, political analysts have suggested.

The death case of Inal Djabiev after interrogation at the police has become the trigger and central element of a large-scale political crisis in South Ossetia, Ruslan Totrov, a journalist, has stated. The political instability has been embodied in a boycott by most of the MPs of parliament sessions demanding the resignation of the Public Prosecutor General, David Sanakoev, an MP, has stated.

The relatives of the murdered Timurziev brothers, detained in Chechnya, were kept in the building of a power structure, her relative has reported. They should have turned to an advocate to find out the reasons of their detention, but the practice of rejecting advocates' services is widespread in Chechnya, says Oleg Orlov, the head of the Hot Spots programme of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a blogger from Chechnya, has called on the Swedish authorities to react to the mild, in his opinion, sentence to the figurants in the assassination attempt on him in the same way as European countries reacted to the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

At the service in the Stepanakert temple, parishioners have prayed for the repose of victims of pogroms of Armenians in Baku. There are about 30,000 refugees from Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh; up to 500 families need housing, a member of the Union of Armenian Refugees has stated.

Azerbaijani laws assume no privileges and payments of no benefits to families of missing military servicemen, the analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have explained. After six months, if the missing person is not found alive, he is assigned the status of a shaheed (deceased martyr); and his family receives all the due benefits.

Alikhan Belkharoev, a resident of Ingushetia, arrested in connection with the attempted murder of Ibragim Eldjarkiev, the head of the Ingush Centre to Counter Extremism (CCE, also known as "E" Centre), said that law enforcers had tortured him to obtain confessions.

In the village of Karin, Karabakh rescuers found a body of a 58-year-old woman. The total number of the dead bodies found by the rescuers increased to 1230. Today, Azerbaijan has banned the Karabakh rescuers from conducting any searches. However, it is planned to resume searches on January 15, the Karabakh side reports.

Azerbaijan and Armenia used inaccurate weapons during shelling attacks on cities, towns, and villages during the autumn escalation of the Karabakh conflict, and as a result, dozens of civilians were killed and hundreds of others were injured. The parties to the conflict must bring the persons responsible for war crimes to justice, states the human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI).

In Yerevan, a protest action took place in front of the government building. The protesters demand from the Armenian authorities to provide security guarantees for conscripts in Nagorno-Karabakh.

An employee of the Azerbaijani road administration was injured after hitting an anti-tank mine with a bulldozer.

Oksana Sotieva, Inal Djabiev's widow, has asked the ex-presidents of South Ossetia to support the demand to investigate his death.

One military serviceman has perished and two others were wounded in a car accident near Shusha, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported.

Historical towers are of great value for the entire Ingush people; and solar panels spoil their appearance and destroy buildings, the historians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" assert. Monitoring towers is necessary, but this issue should have been approached professionally, taking into account residents' and scientists' opinions, they believe.

The powers of the newly-formed Azerbaijani Media Development Agency (MDA) are formulated vaguely, but this structure is entitled to punish the media, human rights defenders and journalists have noted.

If the case against the Timurziev brothers is considered under the terrorism article, their bodies will not be handed over to the family, Ramzan Kadyrov has stated, instructing Adam Delimkhanov to deal with the issue.

After a brawl over the construction of a mosque in the Guria Region of Georgia, two persons have been hospitalized, and their fellow villager detained.

A soldier of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defence Army was wounded during a shelling attack from the Azerbaijani side, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh reported.

Relatives of Ullubiy Amirov, detained on suspicion of drug possession after a murder, which caused a wide public outcry, left the Makhachkala village of Tarki in accordance with the decision of the alims (Islam experts). Local residents associated such a harsh measure to the fact that the father of Ullubiy Amirov did not try to "normalize relations with the society."

The father of the two Timurziev brothers, who attacked policemen in Grozny, apologized on the air of the "Grozny" TV Channel. Akhmetkhan Timurziev assured that law enforcers treated him, his wife, and his daughter well after their detention.