Some news agencies covered the events happened at Amaras monastery in Artsakh recently. According to the information portal "Azututyun" ("Freedom"), whose correspondents interviewed Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, the leader of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and Lernik Avanesyants, the head of Machkalashen Municipality in Martuni region, flags had never been placed over Amaras monastery in peacetime.

One of the sources adds that on September 21 the Azerbaijani soldiers moved their position 1200 meters forward in the direction of Machkalashen, tried to dig trenches in neutral territory, and after that erected Azerbaijani flags at the walls of Amaras monastery. However, through the mediation of the deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, Major General Oleg Yegorov, after a while the Azerbaijani flags were removed from the territory, and the soldiers were returned back to their permanent position.

During the negotiations, the Azerbaijanis demanded that the Russian flag be removed from the monastery complex. On the night of September 23, the Armenian side placed the state flag of the Republic of Artsakh on the monastery, but in the morning the Azerbaijanis demanded to remove the Artsakh flag from both military posts and Amaras monastery. In order to avoid clashes, the Russian military offered to replace the flag of Artsakh with an Armenian one, but by order of a high-ranking officer carrying out a peacekeeping mission, the flag was finally removed on September 24, with the requirement not to raise any flags there anymore.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which periodically provides information about the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh, this time refrained from spreading news.

We would like to recall that Amaras monastery complex is still functioning: restoration work is being carried out there, and pilgrimages accompanied by Russian peacekeepers are being made. In fact, even in the case of monuments that are under the control of the Armenian side, Azerbaijan commits acts of illegal appropriation of the Armenian cultural heritage (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8zNKVQw8Bk).