Armenia drops some martial law restrictions imposed during Karabakh conflict

Armenia said on Wednesday it had dropped some of the martial law restrictions it imposed in September when war broke out between ethnic Armenians in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces. Swaths of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously controlled by ethnic Armenians were handed over to Azerbaijan, whose forces had recaptured some areas which Baku lost in an earlier war in the 1990s.

Armenia said on Wednesday it had dropped some of the martial law restrictions it imposed in September when war broke out between ethnic Armenians in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces. The government said on its website it was cancelling restrictions on holding protests and strikes, as well as relaxing a special regulatory regime governing entry to and exit from the country.

It also lifted restrictions on local media publications that had been only been allowed to publish official government information when reporting on the army and military activity. The Karabakh conflict, which erupted on Sept. 27 came to a halt on Nov. 10 when a Russian-brokered peace deal ushered in a ceasefire. Swaths of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously controlled by ethnic Armenians were handed over to Azerbaijan, whose forces had recaptured some areas which Baku lost in an earlier war in the 1990s.