YEREVAN: Armenia has returned to Azerbaijan four border villages it had seized decades ago, officials in Yerevan and Baku confirmed Friday, in a key step toward normalizing ties between the historic rivals.
The two ex-Soviet countries in the Caucasus fought two wars in the 1990s and in 2020 for control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan recaptured it last year in a lightning offensive, ending three decades of Armenian separatist rule and prompting more than 100,000 locals to flee into Armenia.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had agreed in March to return the four abandoned villages seized by his country in the 1990s, as part of efforts to secure a lasting peace agreement between the countries.
On May 16, they agreed on the demarcation of 12.7 kilometers (almost seven miles) of their border that returned the villages of Baghanis Ayrum, Ashaghi Askipara, Kheyrimli and GhizilHajjili to Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s security service confirmed Friday that its border guards had “officially” taken up new positions reflecting the border deal and ceded the villages to Azerbaijan’s control.
Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev meanwhile announced that his country’s border guards had taken control of the four settlements.
Armenian residents of nearby settlements say the move could cut them off from the rest of the country and accuse Pashinyan of unilaterally giving away territory without any guarantees in return.
The premier’s move has sparked weeks of anti-government protests in Armenia, with thousands of demonstrators led by charismatic cleric Bagrat Galstanyan demanding Pashinyan’s resignation.
A fresh anti-government protest is scheduled for Sunday.
Pashinyan last week described the deal as a “very important milestone for further strengthening Armenia’s sovereignty and independence.”
The territory is of strategic importance for landlocked Armenia because it controls sections of a vital highway to Georgia.
Armenia returns four border villages to Azerbaijan
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Armenia returns four border villages to Azerbaijan

UK revokes Russian diplomat’s accreditation in tit-for-tat move
LONDON: Britain is revoking the accreditation of a Russian diplomat, the foreign ministry said Thursday, after Moscow last year expelled a British official accusing him of espionage.
Russia’s ambassador to London was summoned by the Foreign Office and told it was in “response to Russia’s unprovoked and baseless decision to strip the accreditation of a British diplomat in Moscow in November,” the ministry said in a statement. The UK “will not stand for intimidation of our staff in this way,” it added.
North Gaza’s Indonesia Hospital resumes emergency services

- Indonesia Hospital was one of the first targets hit by Israeli attacks in October 2023
- It treats patients with minor trauma to lessen overcrowding at Al-Awda Hospital
JAKARTA: The Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza has resumed 24-hour emergency services, the NGO that funded it has said, as efforts are underway to start repairs to the hospital after it was severely damaged by Israeli forces.
The hospital in Beit Lahiya, a four-story building located near the Jabalia refugee camp, was built from donations organized by the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee. Like other health care facilities in Gaza, it was severely damaged by Israeli attacks.
But its round-the-clock emergency services have resumed this month at the request of the Gaza Ministry of Health, following the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to north Gaza since Jan. 27.
“As the only functioning hospital, Al-Awda, is not only full but overcrowded, the Gaza Ministry of Health has asked for the emergency department at the Indonesia Hospital to reopen,” Hadiki Habib, who heads MER-C’s latest batch of emergency medical team in Gaza, said during a live-streamed press conference on Wednesday.
“So our emergency department resumed its 24-hours operation on Feb. 1, and we mainly take care of minor trauma cases … We hope to expand our services once essential repairs at the hospital are done.”
Two specialist doctors and a nurse from the Indonesian medical team will be working alongside volunteer Palestinian doctors to provide services at the emergency department, Habib said, adding that many patients had infected wounds and injuries from Israeli attacks on Gaza, which were neglected before the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19.
As Palestinians begin the process of rebuilding their homes destroyed by Israeli bombardment, doctors are also recording new injuries from cleaning up the rubble that now covers much of Gaza.
“North Gaza, which was heavily impacted by the war, certainly requires special care, particularly in terms of health care, and this will be our focus as our expertise is in emergency health care,” said Yogi Prabowo, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee in Jakarta.
“We are also preparing to begin reparations and rebuilding of the Indonesia Hospital, including adding new facilities, such as buildings and health equipment.”
The Indonesia Hospital was one of the first targets hit when Israel began its assault on Gaza in October 2023, during which 47,500 people have been killed and more than 111,000 injured.
Israel frequently targeted medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, saying that they are used by Palestinian armed groups.
France delivers first Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine: minister

- France announced the delivery of the first fighter jets as talk of a negotiated end to the nearly three-year war has risen with Donald Trump back in the White House and Ukraine’s troops struggling on
Paris: France on Thursday delivered a first consignment of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine to help Kyiv defend its airspace against Russia, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Thursday.
“The first of these aircraft have arrived in Ukraine today,” Lecornu said on X, without saying how many had been delivered. After France helped train Ukrainian pilots over recent months, “they will now help defend Ukraine’s skies,” he added.
Last June, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would transfer Mirage 2000-5 aircraft to Ukraine and train their Ukrainian pilots as part of military cooperation with Kyiv.
Of the 26 Mirage 2000-5 aircraft owned by the French air force, six were to be transferred to Ukraine, according to a budget report published by France’s National Assembly lower house.
The French defense ministry neither denied nor confirmed the figure for security reasons.
Ukrainian pilots and mechanics have been trained in eastern France to use the jets, which have undergone modifications including to combat Russian jamming.
France announced the delivery of the first fighter jets as talk of a negotiated end to the nearly three-year war has risen with Donald Trump back in the White House and Ukraine’s troops struggling on the battlefield in the east.
In August, Ukraine received its first consignment of US-made F-16 fighter jets.
Spain rejects Israel’s suggestion it should accept Palestinians from Gaza

MADRID: Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday rejected the suggestion by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that Spain should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.
“Gazans’ land is Gaza and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state,” Albares said in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE.
Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow the “voluntary departure” of residents from the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.
The instruction followed US President Donald Trump’s shock announcement that the United States plans to take over Gaza, resettle the Palestinians living there and transform the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Katz added Spain, Ireland and Norway, which last year recognized a Palestinian state, are “legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories.”
Bangladesh protesters torch ousted PM Hasina’s father’s home

- The house symbolized Bangladesh’s establishment, as Mujibur Rahman declared independence from there
- Much of Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s family, including her father, was assassinated in the same building in 1975
DHAKA: Thousands of protesters set fire to the home of Bangladesh’s founding leader, as his daughter, ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina delivered a fiery social media speech calling on her supporters to stand against the interim government.
Witnesses said several thousand protesters, some armed with sticks, hammers, and other tools, gathered around the historic house and independence monument, while others brought a crane and excavator to demolish the building.
The rally was organized alongside a broader call, dubbed “Bulldozer Procession,” to disrupt Hasina’s scheduled 9 p.m. online address on Wednesday.
Protesters, many aligned with the “Students Against Discrimination” group, had expressed their fury over Hasina’s speech, which they viewed as a challenge to the newly formed interim government.
Tensions have been escalating in Bangladesh since August 2024, when mass protests forced Hasina to flee to neighboring India.
The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has struggled to maintain control as protests and unrest have continued. Demonstrators have attacked symbols of Hasina’s government, including the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was first set ablaze in August.
A symbol of the country’s establishment, the house is where Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), as he is popularly known, declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
A few years later it became the site of a national tragedy. Mujibur Rahman and most of his family were assassinated at the house in 1975. Hasina, who survived the attack, later transformed the building into a museum dedicated to her father’s legacy.
“They can demolish a building, but not the history. History takes its revenge,” Hasina said in her speech on Wednesday.
She urged the people of Bangladesh to stand against the interim government, accusing them of seizing power in an unconstitutional manner.
The student-led movement behind the protests has voiced plans to dismantle the country’s 1972 Constitution, which they argue embodies the legacy of her father’s rule.