The Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region will host its Fourth Annual Banquet at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island on Saturday, December 4, 2010.

The Glendale Symphony Orchestra will kickoff the 2010-2011 season with a fundraising eventon Saturday, September 11 from 4 to 7 p.m., the to honor world-renowned conductor/ composer Maestro Loris Tjeknavorian, is one of the most highly regarded conductors and composers in the world today and will be joining the Glendale Symphony as a guest conductor for a concert later this fall.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee’s public relations committee announced that four commemorative stamps have been issued to mark the ARF’s 120th anniversary.

The recently erected Assyrian Genocide Monument has been vandalized and painted with a Turkish crescent and star. According to Fairfield police, the vandalism occurred around 4 AM. The police thus far have no leads on the perpetrators.

The 2010 Summer Session of the Armenian National Committee-Western Region Internship-Externship Program (ANC-WR IEP) came to a close on August 17th with the program participants delivering their final presentations to regional leadership, staff, and fellow program alumni. The graduates reviewed their accomplishments over the previous ten weeks and fielded questions from the audience regarding their projects.

Turkish President Abdulla Gul Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu will visit New York on September 20 to represent Ankara in the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Turkey’s Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, told reporters on Monday, the Azeri News.az website reported Tuesday.

Under fire for its controversial defense in a high-profile freedom of speech case at the European Court of Human Rights, Turkey will reportedly drop efforts to defend itself and seek friendly settlements instead.

Recent remarks by Iran’s Vice President that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against its Armenian population were “taken out of context and distorted” by the media, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization said in a statement.

Intense U.S. pressure has contributed to the taking of slow reciprocal steps by Turkey and Israel to ease tensions in the severely deteriorated relationship between the two regional powers, diplomatic sources have said, the Turkish Hurriyet Daily reported Monday.

On Aug. 22, the second Armenian Relief Society (ARS), Inc. cruise set sail from the port of Amsterdam, with 357 passengers onboard. The European cruise will take them to Germany, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, and Estonia.

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia will boycott a September 19 church service at the renovated Holy Cross Armenian Church on the island of Aghtamar in Van, a statement from the Catholicosate’s press office

Azerbaijan will accuse Russia of supporting Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and condemn it for arming the Armenian Military at an upcoming autumn session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said the head of Azerbaijan’s delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Bahar Muradov.

Orange Armenia and Research In Motion have teamed to offer the BlackBerry in Armenia, bringing together Blackberry smartphones and software and services to allow wireless access to e-mail, phone, calendar, Web, multimedia and other business and lifestyle applications.

With Congress on its summer recess, Washington’s political corridors are empty. But the debate surrounding U.S. President Barack Obama’s pick for ambassador to Azerbaijan is in full swing. This month, it landed on the editorial pages of two Washington newspapers, adding fuel to the controversy that began in May, when Matthew Bryza’s nomination was first announced.