Chairman Hyde agrees to mark-up bill in committee
WASHINGTON–DC–Late yesterday–Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced a bill urging the President and Secretary of State to call on Turkey to immediately lift its ongoing blockade of Armenia. Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was an original co-sponsor of the bill.
This bill also requires a report from the Secretary of State [...]

BAKU (Combined Sources)–Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan began his two day official visit to Azerbaijan on Wednesday–in an effort to boost already close ties and trade links.
Marking his first official visit to the country as Prime Minister–Erdogan met with Azeri president Ilham Aliyev to discuss issues including cooperation in the oil-and-gas industry and steps [...]

BERLIN–A group calling for an end to Turkey’s official denial of the Armenian genocide held a vigil on June 29 in Berlin–directly across the Turkish Consulate there. Interestingly–the gathering was organized by a group of Turkish intellectuals–who call themselves "Turks of Berlin."
Approximately 25 people–Turks and Germans alike–conducted the 5-hour vigil–calling on Turkey to officially recognize [...]

YEREVAN–Karabagh’s new parliament held its first session on Thursday and elected its leadership. The new speaker of the local assembly is Ashot Ghulian the leader of the Democratic Party of Artsakh (AZhK). Ghulian resigned as Karabagh’s minister of education and culture before taking up the new post. He had previously served as foreign minister.
In his [...]

BEIRUT–Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday evening to take part in the celebrations dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Beirut-based Armenian Haigazian University. Oskanian will serve as keynote speaker.
During his three-day visit–Oskanian will meet with Lebanon’s top government officials–as well as with family members of the late former Prime Minister Rafik [...]

BRUSSELS (Reuters)–The EU’s executive Commission reaffirmed on Wednesday that it aims to bring Turkey into the 25-nation bloc–but not before 2014–adopting a draft mandate to start negotiations despite fierce internal and public debate.
"The negotiations will be based on Turkey’s own merits and the pace will depend on Turkey’s progress in meeting the requiremen’s for membership," [...]

Armenian delegation head calls rapportuer’s assessmen’s ?accurate–balanced–and healthy.’ COPENHAGEN (Combined Sources)–The OSCE’s (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) rapporteur on Mountainous Karabagh is expected to present his report on the Karabagh conflict to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Washington–DC–July 1-5.
Rapporteur Goren Lennmarker’s report proposes that Mountainous Karabagh become a part of Armenia.
Nearly [...]

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–President Robert Kocharian met on Tuesday with Armenia 2020 Project Coordination Board members Nubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanian to discuss the project’s main objectives–as well as the results of recent activities.
Armenia 2020 is a scenario-building initiative that focuses on the identification of alternative development models for the Republic of Armenia until the year 2020 [...]

ANTELIAS (Armenpress)–In a letter to His Holiness Aram I–the spiritual leader of the German Protestant Church–Bishop Wolfgang Huber affirmed his full support for the recognition of the Armenian genocide and has promised to exert efforts in this direction.
Bishop Huber informed the Catholicos about the work carried out by the German Churches for the recognition of [...]

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Foreign minister Vartan Oskanian will serve as keynote speaker for the celebrations dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Beirut-based Armenian Haigazian University.
During his three-day visit–Oskanian will meet with Lebanon’s top government officials–as well as with family members of the late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Oskanian is also scheduled to meet with Catholicos Aram [...]

PARIS (AFP)–France’s ruling party chief and presidential hopeful Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called for EU enlargement to be put on hold to give time for its internal institutions to be "renovated."
"Enlargement must be suspended at least as long as the institutions have not been renovated. Europe must have borders. What I am saying does not [...]