Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Starting on Friday and for the next year, Germany will hold the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Germany will formally assume this role during a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, on January 14. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will present the program and priorities of his country's presidency.

Sevil Erku?sevil.erkus@hurriyet.com.trRussia is due to conduct an observation flight over Turkish territory on Dec. 14-18, under the framework of the Open Skies Treaty, Turkish officials have told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

At a time when the 28-member alliance is in bid to counter unprecedented security challenges both at home and abroad, two senior Turkish diplomats are being appointed to key posts at NATO.

The much-anticipated meeting between the Turkish and Russian foreign ministers, the first face-to-face encounter after Turkey downed a Russian jet on its border with Syria on Nov. 24, has yielded no result. 

Azerbaijan's ruling party won an outright majority Nov. 1 in parliamentary polls that were boycotted by the mainstream opposition, near-complete results showed, cementing strongman President Ilham Aliyev's grip on power.

The Nov. 1 snap election is the key to getting Turkey out of the instability and insecurity it was dragged into after the June 7 election, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has argued, while reiterating an earlier warning to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to be fair in its evaluation of the upcoming elections. 

The European Union agreed on Oct. 12 to suspend sanctions against the regime of Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko after he won a fifth term as president, even though observers said the poll was flawed. 

EU foreign ministers have agreed on a provisional commitment to a four-month lifting of sanctions imposed on Belarus.

Russia has delayed a planned observation flight over Turkey upon a received request from Turkish authorities, Interfax reported on Oct. 12, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. 

Local elections in Ukraine's Donbass region will be held in 2016 instead of this year, French President Francois Hollande has said.

The announcement has come after a "Normandy Four" summit between the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, the website Lenta.ru reports.