Armenia

Bulgaria's coalition government is to table in the National Assembly proposed amendments to the Bulgarians Abroad Act and the Bulgarian Citizenship Act to speed up the process of granting citizenship to applicants from non-EU countries, quoted by the Independent Balkan News Agency.  Principal beneficiaries are expected to be those claiming Bulgarian citizenship by descent.

At its regular weekly sitting, the Council of Ministers approved draft agreements on labour migration with Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.

After the sitting Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, who is in charge of Bulgarians abroad, announced that persons wishing to work in Bulgaria for a period of 90 days will now be able to obtain the documents required within the space of 7 days.

A reception on the occasion of the assuming of the Serbian presidency by Aleksandar Vucic will start at 18:00 hours CET in the Palace of Serbia in New Belgrade.

SOCCER: In the second qualifying round of the Europa League Panionios will face the winner of the first-round tie between Shirak of Armenia and Gorica of Slovenia, according to the draw that took place on Monday. The Nea Smyrni team's games are scheduled on July 13 and 20, with the first leg taking place in Greece.

The walls of Vienna trembled on 27th of September, 1529, as strange music echoed close by. The sound of hundreds of drums stopped the heartbeats of the Austrian defenders. Also, the loud horn-like noise of the zurna pierced their souls, bringing fear of the unknown; of a distant menace coming from afar – The Janissaries.

Photo: Al-Alam

"Kurdish independence is on a trajectory," wherein it's not a question of whether the Kurds will form an independent state, but a question of how soon, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Vincent Stewart told lawmakers on Tuesday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 22 criticized Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimiyan over his remarks largely focusing on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Summit in Istanbul.

The Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) decided to move its headquarters from Istanbul to Yerevan during an extraordinary general assembly meeting in Tehran on May 16. 

In a written statement on May 17, the organization said a majority of members of the general assembly had decided to relocate FEAS' headquarters to Armenia after 22 years of operations in Turkey.

Behind the kitsch and glitz of the Eurovision Song Contest, to be hosted on May 13 by Kiev, lie a host of geopolitical tensions.

Created by western public broadcasters as a catalyst to European unity in 1956, the songfest has since become an echo chamber for national rivalries.

In the latest example, Moscow and Kiev clashed this year over Russia's contest choice.

Demy, Greece's representative in the 2017 Eurovision song contest, was two of 10 to qualify for the final in the first round of heats in Kiev, Ukraine.

The 25-year-old singer performed "This Is Love," a song composed by Dimitris Kontopoulos with lyrics from Romy Papadea and John Ballard.