Azerbaijan announced on Wednesday that the first series of weaponry produced through its new domestic arms production program have rolled off the factory and are ready for testing, the Azeri Press Agency reported.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation will hold street demonstrations on January 12 when Armenia’s Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold hearings on the Turkey-Armenia Protocols, said the leader of the party’s faction in parliament.

The US Embassy in Azerbaijan on Monday commented on the agreement by the US House and Senate last week to provide the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with $8 million in aid, a move Baku vehemently opposes, the Azeri Trend News Agency reported.

sassounianIn his letter of November 20 to Armenian American organizations, Pres. Obama once again played shameful word games with the term genocide. At this point, one has to be incredibly naïve to believe that he is going to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide during the rest of his term in office.

Youth organizations in Armenia released an open statement on Friday condemning Azerbaijan’s recent threats to use force against Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The letter, read at a press conference at the Yerablur memorial complex, is open for all youth, students and political organizations to join, the organizers said.

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.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court late Friday delivered a landmark ruling, banning the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) for alleged links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Tbilisi and Moscow exchanged cautious diplomatic overtures as Georgia on December 10 welcomed the possible opening of its border with Russia and the resumption of air transportation.

Hundreds of Kurds clashed with police in Turkey’s south-eastern city of van, hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks. There were no immediate reports of injuries, the Associated Press reported

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured at least temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the Armenian Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey’s advantage–dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric, reinforcing Turkey’s “Protocols” preconditions for lifting its blockade of Armenia, and attempting to use Ankara’s new found leverage in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of this conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Turkey’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday began hearing a closure case against Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party on charges of links to a terrorist organization.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after his meeting with President Obama that normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations was contingent on the Karabakh conflict resolution.

Armenian Americans made the final push in their month-long Countdown to Erdogan with a White House call-in day urging President Barack Obama to honor his campaign pledge by telling visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan that the U.S. condemns the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of America, (ANCA).

At a time when the ethnic press is teetering on the brink of change, the Armenian Weekly celebrates its 75th anniversary with a vision to the future. It has survived a monsoon of editorial exchanges, a transgression of readership, financial instability, unsettled attitudes, and now the electronic age.