Armenia

Turkey's presidential spokesman met on Sept. 22 with the U.S. national security adviser at the White House.

Rumors of a breakthrough in Turkish-Armenian relations have no basis in fact. Turkey and Armenia cannot undertake a normalization of their relations without including Azerbaijan. Stability and security in the South Caucasus require a three-way dialogue between Turkey-Armenia-Azerbaijan and for Armenia to give up its fantasies of a Greater Armenia.

Any threats against Azerbaijan will be looked upon as threats against Turkey, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.

Turkey is adding 242 kilometers more to its security wall along the border with Iran in the eastern province of Van to curtail migration, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Sept. 15.

"We will add another 242 km to the 221 km we have erected so far at our borders with Iran in the east," he said at a migration board meeting.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, hails the celebration of 10 years since the signing of the US - Romania Strategic Partnership.

A man who attacked five people last year at a Turkish restaurant in the U.S. state of California and made death threats agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges in a hate crime case. 

According to a plea agreement filed Monday in U.S. District Court, William Stepanyan, a Glendale city resident, has agreed to plead to one count of conspiracy and one hate crime charge.

The Akdamar Church in Turkey's eastern province of Van will host its ninth special mass on Sept. 5 since reopening in 2010 after a hiatus of 95 years.

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Previously attended in the hundreds before the novel coronavirus pandemic struck last year, participation in the annual mass will once again be subject to limitations as part of efforts to prevent infection.

The end of the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region paves the way for improvement in Turkish-Armenian relations, Russia's foreign minister said on Sept. 3.

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The National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) updated on Thursday the list of countries with high epidemiological risk. According to CNSU, Serbia, Estonia, Albania, Tunisia, Mauritius, Jamaica, Lebanon, Palestine, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname and Brunei Darussalam have entered the red zone.

Armenia is seeing "positive signals" from Turkey and will respond in kind, the country's prime minister said on Aug. 27.

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At a Cabinet meeting in the capital Yerevan, Premier Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged that there were positive signals coming from Ankara in terms of regional peace.