Member states of the Council of Europe

Turkish hoteliers have sped up promotional activities in new markets in a bid to recover their expected losses in key markets, mainly European and Russian markets. 

The Hotel Association of Turkey (TÜROB) said the association recently attended tourism fairs to diversify their markets in places like Latin America, South Africa and Azerbaijan, in a written statement on April 18. 

The number of detections of illegal crossings in March at EU's external borders in the Western Balkans have decreased by about 90% compared to February, the EU's border management agency, Frontex, said on Monday.

Frontex attributed the drop to Macedonia's decision to significantly reduce the number of migrants it allowed to enter from Greece.

Bailed-out Greek Cyprus recorded a 40-percent hike in tourist arrivals in March, setting the stage for a record year for the holiday island and indicating an economic revival, official data showed on April 18.

Tourist arrivals already hit a 14-year high in 2015 reaching 2.65 million, on the back of a cheaper euro. 

DOST party will work toward strengthening Bulgaria's relations with neighbouring Turkey, its leader Lyutvi Mestan has said.

"The Republic of Turkey can be of great help to us," Mestan told Turkey's Anadolu Agency on Sunday in his first interview for foreign media after last week's founding of DOST party.

The first Cem-Papandreu International Peace Award was given to businessmen ?ar?k Tara and Theodoros Papalexopoulos, and the Greek-Turkish Forum for being pioneers and "opening innovative ways of communication between Greece and Turkey."

President Rosen Plevneliev will attend and take part in the 11th edition of the Globsec forum due on April 15-17 in Bratislava, Slovakia, his press office has said.

Bulgaria and Turkey have achieved a very good level of cooperation in ensuring the protection of their common border in the context of the current migration crisis in Europe.

A high-level delegation from President Putin's United Russia party is coming to Montenegro in mid-April to improve relations with the majority Orthodox country, which was recently invited to join NATO.

The visit will include meetings with pro-Russian parties, religious leaders, NGOs, business associations, media and the Russian diaspora in Montenegro.

The expelled leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), Lyutvi Mestan, founded his new party on Sunday.

The founding conference was held in hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in the Bulgarian capital and was attended by 1103 founders.

Greece has temporarily suspended the return of migrants to Turkey under the EU-Turkey agreement due to a surge in the number of asylum applications.

Most of the 6750 migrants on the Greek islands are applying for asylum and there is shortage of qualified officials such as translators to process the applications.