The Region in Brief

Armenia

The bodies of a 31-year-old woman and her two children were found in their home in Pemzashen village in the Shirak province of Armenia. Shirak’s prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal investigation on charges of murder, including murder of a minor. Shirak prosecutor Gurgen Grigoryan said the murders were carried out using a “sharp tool that could cut and pierce.” Grigoryan said that the woman’s husband is currently working abroad, yet “everything is being inspected.”

Artsakh

Russian-Armenian billionaire and philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan was appointed the Minister of State of Artsakh on November 4. Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunayn announced Vardanyan’s nomination after the latter said at the start of September that he was renouncing his Russian citizenship and moving to Artsakh. “Saving Artsakh is the main goal of my life today,” Vardanyan said at the time. He is replacing Artak Beglaryan, the former Human Rights Defender of Artsakh who has held the post since 2021. Vardanyan is the founder of the IDeA foundation, a development organization that oversees the Aurora Prize for humanitarian projects, and established a branch of the United World College in Dilijan, Armenia. He also served as the president of Sberbank CIB, a multinational investment firm that laundered $4.6 billion from Russia to the West from 2006 to 2013, according to an OCCRP investigation.

Azerbaijan

A 17-year-old girl who was married off at the age of 15 died during childbirth on November 5. Shabinur Isayeva was sent as a child bride to her neighboring village Sighili in the Kurdamir district. While she passed away after undergoing a cesarean section, her child survived. The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into manslaughter following public outcry. “The father and mother who married off a 17-year-old girl at the age of 15, the dishonorable man who married her, and the mother-in-law who made her a bride killed Shabinur,” children’s rights activist Kamala Aghazade said.

Turkey

Turkish authorities are aggravating a deadly cholera outbreak by restricting water flows to Syria, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. Since 2021, Turkey has heavily limited the downstream flow of water to Syrian-held portions of the Euphrates River, on which more than five million Syrians depend for their water and electricity supply. Turkey has also failed to provide consistent water supply from Allouk, a critical water station in northern Syria under Turkish control that serves as a primary water source for Kurdish-held areas in northeast Syria. The World Health Organization has recorded 81 deaths and 24,000 active cases of cholera, which is now spreading to Lebanon. Syria and Iraq have long accused Turkey of using its hegemony over the Euphrates River as a political tool to control water supply to its southern neighbors.

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Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She reports on international women's rights, South Caucasus politics, and diasporic identity. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Democracy in Exile, and Girls on Key Press. She holds master's degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University.