Armenia

Turkish and Azerbaijani armies started on June 28 joint military exercises in Baku, the latter's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 2021 "joint live-fire tactical exercises" are being held in line with an agreement on bilateral military cooperation, the ministry said.

Experts discovered some 8,000-year-old deer drawings made with ochre on the walls of mountain caves in the eastern province of Erzurum's Tortum district on June 26.

"Armenia should understand that Azerbaijan will continue to strengthen, there is no doubt about that. In addition, our military power will increase. After the war, appropriate instructions were given, new agreements were signed, and the process of purchasing new weapons and equipment based on modern structural reforms of our armed forces have been approved.

The visit to the South Caucasus of three EU foreign ministers is a "reconfirmation of the priority that both the EU and the Member States give to the stability and security of states" in this region, including "through greater involvement with a view to a lasting settlement of protracted conflicts," Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Friday during talks in Yerevan with President Ar

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu highlighted on Friday the importance that the European Union attaches to the countries in its Eastern Neighbourhood, as well as the EU interest in an increased involvement in the region, including in order to solve prolonged conflicts, in talks in Baku with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and with head of Azerbaijani diplomacy Jeyhu

Romania's National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) updated on Friday its list of countries or areas with high COVID-19 epidemiological risk. "The classification of the countries/areas by the cumulative rate of COVID-19 cases in order to sort the persons arriving in Romania accordingly and subject them to quarantine is hereby approved," reads CNSU Decision 39.

The presidents of Russia and Turkey spoke over the phone on June 24 and discussed bilateral ties, tourism, the Sputnik V vaccine, Nagorno-Karabakh region and Syria, official statements said.

The EU-mandated tour of the South Caucasus by the Romanian, Austrian and Lithuanian Foreign Ministers sends the respective states "a coordinated message on the need to continue and deepen reforms, in the spirit of the European agenda," Romania's top diplomat Bogdan Aurescu said today, as he spoke alongside his Austrian and Lithuanian counterparts before embarking on the trip.

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will be touring the South Caucasus, June 24-26, accompanied by Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to strengthen the European Union's geopolitical profile in its own neighbourhood, to increase the EU's involvement and role in resolving protracted conflicts in the region.

The party of Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won the early parliamentary polls with 53.92% of the votes, according to preliminary results on June 21.

Unofficial results announced by the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia showed that Pashinyan's Civil Contract Party came first in the election held on June 20.