BRUSSELS (Reuters)–The European Commission recommended a partial suspension of EU accession talks with Turkey on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Ankara’s hope of joining the European Union after it refused to open its ports to Cyprus. The EU executive said this covered talks on eight of the 35 policy areas or "chapters" into which the [...]

MINSK, Belarus (RFE/RL)–Armenia and Azerbaijan have reported further progress towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, following a meeting between Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev Tuesday. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, who accompanied Kocharian on the Minsk trip, echoed Aliyev’s positive mood as he spoke to journalists on his return to [...]

LOS ANGELES–Armenian National Committee-Political Action Committee (ANC-PAC) Chairman Leonard Manoukian and former Clinton Administration official Michael Mahdesian engaged in a discussion with Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), the incoming Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, regarding the increasingly controversial nomination of Dick Hoagland to serve as US Ambassador to Armenia. The meeting was held in connection [...]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The National Assembly passed on Wednesday a controversial government bill that keeps open the possibility of a change of Armenia’s national anthem, something which is strongly opposed by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The government drafted the bill late last month after shelving plans for the adoption of a new anthem in place of the [...]

LOS ANGELES–A delegation representing the ARF Central Committee visited the offices of the Western Prelacy Tuesday and was welcomed Western Prelate Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian. The delegation consisted of Avedik Izmirlian, John Kossakian, Arto Keuleyan and Krikor Achikian. The discussion centered around issues of mutual interest and concerns related to the Armenian community. The delegation briefed [...]

ANKARA (Reuters)–Pope Benedict backed Ankara’s EU entry bid and said Islam was a religion of peace on Tuesday, according to Turkey’s prime minister, in a bid to soothe rows over his views in the mostly Muslim state. Benedict received a red carpet welcome on arrival in Turkey with Tayyip Erdogan greeting him at the steps [...]

MINSK, Belarus (RFE/RL)–The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in the Belarusian capital Minsk late Tuesday for crucial peace talks which international mediators hoped will produce a breakthrough in their long-running efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev came face to face for a third time in less than a year [...]

MINSK, Belarus (RIA Novosti)– Members of Russia’s Kremlin press corps accompanying President Vladimir Putin on his trip to a CIS summit in Minsk left the conference venue Tuesday in solidarity with non-government reporters denied entry by the organizers. Three correspondents, accredited to cover the summit for the Moscow-based independent newspapers Moskovsky Komsomolets and Kommersant, were [...]

KIEV (Combined Sources)–Ukraine’s parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly adopted a bill recognizing the Soviet-era forced famine as genocide against the Ukrainian people. An estimated 10 million Ukrainians starved to death in 1932-33 after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin seized the country’s cattle and crop in a forced farm collectivization campaign. The acting director of Ukraine’s National Memory Institute, [...]

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Three members of the French National Assembly, Francois Rocheblois, who is head of the parliamentary France-Armenia friendship group and two other members of the group, Alain Soin-Bersand and Jean-Pierre Delanoid, were welcomed Tuesday by members of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign affairs. Armen Rustamian, chairman of the committee, spoke at length about the [...]

NICOSIA (Armenpress)–A wide range of issues was discussed Thursday during a meeting between Armenian and Cypriot presidents Robert Kocharian and Tassos Papadopoulos, and consultations between the two countries’ leaders. During the negotiations an agreement on fighting organized crime was signed and task forces were assigned to develop concrete proposals and programs for boosting cooperation. At [...]

NICOSIA, Cyprus (Agence France Presse)–Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian scoffed at a proposal from Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan for historians from both sides to form a commission to study the bloody events of 1915-1917, which Ankara refuses to classify as genocide, calling is a "smokescreen," in an interview with AFP before leaving Cyprus. [...]

WASHINGTON–Armenian Genocide denier and controversial Middle East historian Bernard Lewis was amongst those honored by President Bush this month with the prestigious National Humanities Medal, reported the Armenian National Committee of America. President Bush, joined by First Lady Laura Bush, bestowed the medal at a November 9 ceremony held in the White House Oval Office. [...]

HELSINKI, Finland (Bloomberg)–The European Union abandoned efforts to resolve a diplomatic deadlock over Turkey’s trade curbs on Cyprus this year, bringing closer a possible suspension of Turkey’s bid to join the EU. “At this stage circumstances do not permit that an agreement could be reached during the Finnish presidency,” Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said [...]