The government of Switzerland announced Tuesday that it will appeal a December 17, 2013 decision by the European Court of Human Rights overturning the conviction of Dogu Perinçek for denying the Armenian Genocide.

In a piece published on the eurasianet.org blog, author Giorgi Lomsadze reports that leaders of the Crimean Tatars have sent an appeal for help to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev to support the community as the crisis in Ukraine escalates and a referendum to secede from Ukraine is scheduled for this Sunday.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili pledged to develop all the regions of the Republic equally, including Javakhk (Samtskhe-Javakheti), during an address at the Atlantic Council held as part of his first official visit to the United States this week, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

A voice recording said to be of a telephone conversation between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son Bilal is at the center of the latest political storm in Turkey.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Georgia and Azerbaijan support each other in issues of “territorial integrity” during a visit by Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili to Baku on Thursday.

YEREVAN (Arka)—Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said on Wednesday that Armenia welcomes the decision of Cypriot leaders to resume negotiations on the Cyprus issue.
The leaders of the Greek and Turkish-occupied segments of Cyprus began a new round of talks on Tuesday, with the aim of achieving reunification of the now ethnically split island nation.
Cypriot [...]

The European Parliament ethics committee is set to censure a group of nine lawmakers who are suspected of accepting favors from Azerbaijan during an electoral observation mission there in October last year, the EurActive.com news portal reported Tuesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has challenged Fethullah Gülen, the self-exiled leader of the influential Hizmet (or Gülen) Movement, to establish a political party to compete with his government in the political sphere, vowing to fight against what he calls a “parallel state” led by the Islamic scholar.

Turkey’s parliament has approved internet controls enabling web pages to be blocked within hours in what the opposition decried as part of a government bid to stifle a corruption scandal with methods more suited to “times of coups,” Reuters reports.

Websites managed by Islamist rebel forces in Syria reported Wednesday that three more Azeri mercenaries fighting in its ranks have been killed.

Some of the al-Qaeda militants going to fight in Syria have bases in neighbouring Turkey and can easily access Europe from the NATO member state, Israel’s military intelligence chief said on Jan. 29.

French President Francois Hollande, during what is being billed as an historical trip to Turkey, urged Ankara to “reconcile” with its own history and reaffirmed France’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, reported Le Monde.

The European Union executive on Wednesday expressed concern about developments in Turkey where the government is embroiled in a massive graft scandal that has triggered a purge of the police.

Two more Azerbaijani citizens who participated in the fighting in Syria on the side of the terrorists have been killed in Syria. According to the Azerbaijani news agency APA, two online sources belonging to terrorist groups fighting against government forces in Syria revealed this information.