October 30, 2020 - 20:02 AMT
Robert Kocharyan won't be traveling to Moscow due to Covid diagnosis

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan will not be traveling to Moscow for Nagorno-Karabakh meetings because his coronavirus test has returned positive, his office said Friday, October 30.

It was reported earlier that Kocharyan and the country's first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan were expected to travel to Russia to discuss the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh with representatives of the Russian elite.

"Robert Kocharyan intended to fly to Moscow in the coming days and took the Covid test, which is mandatory for entering Russia. The test came back positive, which was a complete surprise, since he did not and still does not have any symptoms," his office said in a Facebook post.

His team added that the the trip to Moscow and the arrangement of various meetings are temporarily impossible.

Azerbaijan, with help from Turkey and Syrian and Libyan mercenaries deployed by Ankara, started a war against Karabakh (Artsakh) in the morning of September 27. The Armenian side has reported deaths and injuries both among the civilian population and the military. Foreign and local journalists too have been injured in Azeri shelling of towns and villages.