Turkey

Regional governors along the Georgia-Turkey border discussed cooperation in Akhaltsikhe this week. Georgian Governor Lasha Chkadua met with neighboring Turkish border region Ardahan Governor Mustafa Tekmen and the governor of the Georgian Samtskhe Dzhvakheti region.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule will visit Macedonia on February 19th, Macedonia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday. Commissioner Fule will meet with Macedonia’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU integration Vasko Naumovski, and Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki. The newly-appointed EU enlargement chief took up his …

The Turkish and Georgian parliament speakers met in Ankara, Turkey on Wednesday. Turkey’s Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin and Georgia’s Parliament Speaker David Bakradze had a tete-a-tete meeting at the Turkish parliament, and then chaired the meeting between two delegations.

Turkey said Wednesday it would not withdraw troops from the divided island of Cyprus, rejecting a call from the European Parliament (EP). European lawmakers on Wednesday endorsed a resolution that urged Turkey to start prompt withdrawal of troops from Cyprus, a Mediterranean island divided into the Turkish north and Greek …

The European Parliament (EP) approved a resolution by Slovenian lawmaker Zoran Thaler on Wednesday (February 10th) which recommended the EU to set dates for start of membership talks with Macedonia. The draft was supported by 548 lawmakers, 45 voted against it and 35 abstained. The document recommended that Macedonia quickly …

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said that he will continue talks aimed at uniting the island, despite criticism from his former coalition partner, the Movement for Social Democracy (KS-EDEK). The party accuses him of making strategic mistakes in talks with the Turkish Cypriots. The KS-EDEK announced on Monday that it is …

Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday that Albania-Turkey agreement, lifting visa requirements for natioanals of the two countries, enters into effect on Wednesday. Albanian foreign ministry said scrapping the visa obligations started on January 27th and now the citizens of both counters are entitled to visa-free travel.

Serbia has agreed to accept the appointment of a new ambassador from Bosnia, ending a three-year diplomatic impasse between the two countries, Bosnia’s foreign ministry has announced. The ministry said in a statement that Belgrade’s approval resulted from a series of trilateral meetings between the foreign ministers of Bosnia, Serbia …

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat vowed on Friday (February 5th) to continue talks with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias on the reunification of the divided island. “Although we [Turkish Cypriots] have elections in April, I’m not going to stop the talks.

European Parliament will hold a plenary session on February 10th to debate the progress of Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey towards the European Union membership. European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee recently adopted the amendments to draft-resolution on Macedonia, urging the EU