ANKARA (Reuters)–Best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for saying that Armenia’s suffered genocide at the hand of the Ottoman Turkish government 90 years ago–his publisher said on Wednesday.
Turkish prosecutors are also investigating commen’s by Pamuk that some 30,000 Kurds were killed more recently in Turkey in separatist clashes with [...]

BRUSSELS (Combined Sources)–The European Commission has insisted that Turkey must fully implement an EU customs protocol if it hopes to join the bloc–despite Ankara’s refusal to recognize Cyprus as a member state.
Spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said Turkey’s hopes of joining the EU hinged on its respect for the revised Ankara protocol. Turkey signed the pact in [...]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)–With a vote of 92 to 1 and no abstentions–Armenian parliament approved on Wednesday the first reading of 18 revised as well as new articles to the Constitution.
Lawmakers from opposition Ardarutyun (Justice) bloc and National Unity vetoed the vote. They had indicted on Tuesday that they would reject the draft because their proposals were [...]

"At the heart of this issue is Nagorno Karabagh–a democracy defending itself against a corrupt monarchy that blockades its neighbors and abuses its own citizens." –ANCA Memo to Congress–August 26–2005
WASHINGTON–DC–In letters sent last week to every Member of Congress–the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) responded to the recent escalation of Azeri Embassy’s misinformation campaign [...]

(AFP/RTE News)–French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has raised the pressure on Turkey over Cyprus–saying it is inconceivable that a country seeking to enter the EU could fail to recognize all its members.
Turkey is due to start EU entry talks on October 3–but has angered the union by saying that its signing of a key EU [...]

YEREVAN (ArmenPress/Yerkir)–Armenian lawmakers continued to debate constitutional reforms proposed by the President and the coalition government–but failed to meet the vote deadline–after their second and final reading.
The draft was harshly criticized by members of the opposition "National Unity" and "Justice" factions–who called on Armenia’s to reject the proposed amendmen’s during a national referendum in October.
But [...]

YEREVAN (ArmenPress)–Cascade Credit CJSC and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a loan guarantee agreement on Tuesday–whereby USAID has agreed to guarantee Cascade Credit CJSC issued bonds.
US Ambassador John Evans–USAID Country Mission Director Robin Phillips–and Cascade Credit Executive Director Garegin Gevorgyan signed the agreement at Cascade Capital Holding headquarters in Yerevan–Armenia.
This agreement [...]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Yerkir)–Armenia’s foreign minister Vartan Oskanian indicated that though talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan were positive–there were no breakthroughs resulting from their weekend meeting in Kazan.
"True–no breakthrough was achieved during that meeting–but we do consider it positive and believe that the negotiations are following a positive course," he told a news conference [...]

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–The US Embassy in Armenia’said the US Department of State will host a series of meetings for Armenian Parliament Chairman Arthur Baghdasarian during the Washington–DC portion of his trip to the United States.
Baghdasarian will be in the US August 31 to September 7–as a part of the State Department’s International Visitor Program–and will meet [...]

Before we get to the meat of this week’s column–I just want to point out to all my readers that if you search "Turkish drug money" on Google.com today–my last article is in the top five results.
Thank you. Thank you. No really–I couldn’t have done it without you–my loyal readers.
Anyway–time to get the Sinikian show [...]

(RFE/RL)–Armenia and Azerbaijan have made contradictory statemen’s on the meeting between their presidents that took place in Russia over the weekend. International mediators had hoped the talks would mark a turning point in their protracted search for a solution to the Mountainous Karabagh conflict.
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev did not speak to journalists after [...]

YEREVAN–(RFE/RL)–Opposition leaders suspended their 18-month boycott of parliament on Monday as it began final debates on draft amendmen’s to Armenia’s constitution that are due to be put to a referendum in November. Their approval by the majority of lawmakers is almost certain.
The debates were broadcast live on national television on Monday–featuring only two of the [...]

MOSCOW (Combined Sources)–A large number of demonstrators rallied in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku Saturday to demand free and democratic parliamentary elections while an opposition leader was registered to run in the November poll.
About 15,000 protesters paraded through the center of Baku to demand changes to the country’s election laws to guarantee a fair parliamentary poll on [...]

(uefa.com)–Armenia coach Henk Wisman has named a 21-man’squad for the September FIFA World Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Captain Harutyun Vardanyan returns after a year on the sidelines with a knee injury–while FC Banants’s Samvel Melkonyan and FC Pyunik’s Armen Tigranyan hope to make their debuts.
ARMENIA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Roman Berezovski (FC Dinamo [...]