Having Turkey mediate peace talks between Israel and Syria was a mistake that harmed relations between Ankara and Israel, a senior Israeli official said.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wednesday said his country’s parliament would not ratify US-backed fence-mending agreements signed with Armenia in October until Azeri “lands are liberated from Armenian occupation,” reported the Azeri Today.az website.

The East Coast tour of Armenia National Assembly member Armen Rustamyan concluded on Sunday, December 13, after a guest appearance at the New York ARF’s commemoration of the Federation’s 119th anniversary. During his December 9-13 visit, Rustamyan met with Congressional and other US government representatives and visited east coast communities.

Law-enforcement authorities in Armenia said on Tuesday that they have finished a criminal investigation into two men who were arrested recently on charges of spying for Azerbaijan.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has responded to an October 13 open letter from the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, William Schabas. In the letter, addressed to both Sarkisian and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Schabas, said: “Acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide must be the starting point of any ‘impartial historical commission,’ not one of its possible conclusions.”

Some three years ago I was sitting in a doctor’s office – one of Armenia’s best oncologists and a very good friend of my mother – who was telling my mother how many people fail to visit a doctor because they know that they need an operation and cannot afford one. The doctor was explaining to my mother how many people in Armenia fail to pay prophylactic visits to the doctor because of financial issues or, once the doctor tells them they need an operation, patients never show up for an operation. According to him he has dealt with numerous cases when the family of the patient rushes in the sick with hemorrhaging or another grave condition – when he can no longer resist the illness or the calls of his family to undergo an operation – and they perform an immediate operation.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned President Serzh Sarkisian late Thursday just hours after he threatened to annul Armenia’s fence-mending agreements with Turkey if Ankara fails to unconditionally implement them, it emerged on Friday.

Armenia on Thursday explicitly threatened to walk away from its landmark agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to make their implementation conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The U.S. House and Senate Wednesday agreed upon a far-reaching Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) spending measure that includes a $41 economic aid package for Armenia, $8 million for “programs and activities” in Nagorno Karabagh, and parity in Foreign Military Financing for Armenia and Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Russia is ready to reopen its main border crossing with Georgia heavily used by Armenian exporters despite refusing to deal with the current Georgian leadership, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama hailed the Armenia-Turkey protocols and pledged US support for the process as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodagan, on the eve of his meeting with the president, issued an ultimatum to the White House saying that normalization process could not move forward without an end to the Karabakh conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not intend to meet with American Jewish organizations in the course of his visit to the U.S., the Turkish Dunyabulteni news website reported on Friday.

A protest movement against a planned Russian-Armenian uranium mine in southern Armenia appears to be picking up steam, with
discussions underway with three political parties about a partnership.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian met with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu Tuesday on the sidelines of an OSCE Ministerial meeting in Athens, reported CNNTurk.