RFE/RL -- Armenia and Azerbaijan are narrowing their differences over a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict sought by international mediators, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said over the weekend.

“We are trying to help Armenians and Azerbaijanis to reach a common approach,” the DPA news agency quoted him as saying at the Munich Security Conference. “It's obviously a very difficult issue, but things are moving.”

“The understanding is growing and the number of issues that must be tackled by the top leaders is reducing and we are trying to help,” Lavrov said.

Russia, which co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group with the United States and France, has stepped up its involvement in the Karabakh negotiating process of late, with President Dmitry Medvedev hosting this year’s first meeting of his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts near the Russian city of Sochi late last month.

Tert.am -- RA President Serzh Sargsyan sent a formal letter to his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gül. The letter reads as follows:

“Your Excellency,

“Travelling over Turkey’s air territory, I am sending my greetings to you and people of neighbouring Turkey.

“Our initiative to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations is at the centre of the international community’s attention. This period is, in fact, a historical one, and not only we, but also the whole world understands that. The efforts made by regional powers for the improvement of bilateral relations go beyond any appreciation. I am sure that it would be hard to see progress without their intervention.

RFE/RL -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly criticized the United States and other world powers spearheading the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, saying that they have lacked commitment to broker a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

“There has been serious neglect by the Minsk trio,” Erdogan charged in a Sunday evening interview with Turkish state television, referring to the U.S., Russia and France -- the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh.

“If Russia, the US and France had worked hard within the past 20 years, none of these problems would have emerged; neither the trouble between us and Armenia, nor a trouble between Armenia and Azerbaijan would remain,” he said, according to “Today’s Zaman” daily. “The performance of Russia, America and France has been below expectations,” he added.

RFE/RL -- Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denounced a U.S. congressional committee over the weekend for scheduling a vote on an Armenian genocide resolution, saying that its passage would seriously harm Turkey’s relations with both the United States and Armenia.

Davutoglu reportedly suggested that Washington is using the prospect of the resolution’s passage by the U.S. House of Representatives to force Turkey to ratify its fence-mending agreements with Armenia. He also accused Yerevan of hampering further progress in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Why is that draft included on the [committee] agenda now?” he said, according to a “Hurriyet” report cited by the Azerbaijani APA news agency on Monday. “Let them not expect from us the ratification of protocols by using April 24 as a tool for pressure.

Itar-Tass -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with his counterparts, Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia, in Sochi on Monday to discuss the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Kremlin press service reported.

Upon the results of the first tripartite meeting in Barvikha “the presidents signed the Declaration of the Azerbaijani Republic, the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation, which confirmed the striving for attaining a political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the international law, the support for the mediating efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, the United States and France) and the agreements reached between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to intensify the negotiating process and to promote the creation of conditions for building up trust.”

RFE/RL -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg reportedly assured President Serzh Sarkisian on Thursday that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is “very important” for the United States.

Steinberg met with Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian during a one-day visit to Yerevan. The U.S.-backed efforts to improve Turkish-Armenian relations were high on the agenda of his talks.

“He reaffirmed that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is very important for the United States and that the USA is ready to continue its assistance to the process,” Sarkisian’s press office said in a statement.

The statement said Steinberg praised the Armenian leadership’s commitment to the implementation of the Turkish-Armenian normalization and stood by Washington’s view that a relevant ruling handed down last month by Armenia’s Constitutional Court was a step in the right direction.

Civilitas Foundation -- Armenia’s residents know how the government collects taxes, but few know how those revenues are spent. For that reason, the Civilitas annual report Armenia in 2009: Promise and Reality, prepared a well-researched and detailed poster providing a visual explanation of Armenia’s 2010 budget.

• Social security – 649 mln USD
• General Public Services – 371 mln USD
• Defense – 360 mln USD
• Support to Different Economic Spheres – 300 mln USD
• Education- 265 mln USD
• Public Order, Security and Justice- 150 mln USD
• Health – 147 mln USD
• Housing and Utilities -123 mln USD
• Reserve Funds – 58 mln USD
• Sport and Culture – 43 mln USD
• Environmental Protection 16 mln USD

Those eleven categories (with the exception of the Reserve Funds) are divided into the relevant sub-categories. A careful study of the budget shows for example that the reserved funds are equal to the total funds the government intends to spend on sports, culture and the environment.

Today's Zaman -- Turkish diplomats and politicians will today be closely following a trilateral summit in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a trilateral summit that will focus on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Ankara, which last year agreed with Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border, insists on seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in parallel with its efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan. Ankara argues that partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as the parties fail to exert efforts for complete normalization.

RFE/RL -- Stronger U.S. pressure on Turkey is essential for salvaging its fence-mending agreements with Armenia and the administration of President Barack Obama understands that, according to a renowned U.S. scholar who was actively involved in Turkish-Armenian reconciliation initiatives.

In an interview with RFE/RL on Thursday, David Phillips also criticized Ankara’s linkage between the implementation of those agreements and a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. He dismissed Turkish claims that a recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court ran counter to key provisions of the Turkish-Armenian “protocols” signed in October.

Phillips, who coordinated the work of the U.S.-sponsored Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) in 2001-2004, further said that Armenia should not rush to walk away from the deal. But he stressed that its ratification by the Turkish parliament can not be “an open-ended process.”

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Haaretz.com, by Yossi Sarid -- The defense minister [Israeli] paid a visit to Turkey this week. They say it was a success. If so, it is possible to renew the conspiracy of silence and the silencing. 

This is what happened a few months ago after Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again poured bitter words upon us [Israel]. An important Israeli personality telephoned me and said the following: "Now you have to hit back at the Turks, to denounce them for the crimes they committed against the Armenians. You, Yossi, have the right to do so. Today you are a private citizen, but even when you were a public figure you did not hold yourself back. You expressed yourself often, in writing and orally, against the way they shirked responsibility for the genocide."

I was filled with revulsion and my soul wanted to puke. The person who telephoned me was an example of the ugly Israeli who had disgracefully been at the forefront of those who denied the Armenian Holocaust.

RFE/RL by Ruben Meloyan -- International mediators visited Baku on Friday to start preparations for more talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents which they hope will lead to a framework peace accord on Nagorno-Karabakh next year.

The American, French and Russian diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group said they met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to “follow up” on his last meeting with Armenia’s Serzh Sarkisian held in Munich on November 22.

In a joint statement, the mediators said they also intend to visit Yerevan in early January. “These visits will prepare the way for further meetings between the two presidents in 2010 to finalize the Basic Principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” they said.