ArmInfo. A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, approved two motions regarding the Armenian genocide of 1915 on Thursday. According to NLTimes Dutch edition, Both motions were submitted by ChristenUnie parliamentarian Joel Voordewind. All four coalition parties supported the motions. One states that the Tweede Kamer "recognizes the Armenian genocide", the other that a Dutch Minister or State Secretary should attend the commemoration of this genocide in Armenia in April. This decision is expected to further sour the relationship between Turkey and the Netherlands, ANP reports. At the same time, the edition reports that this decision of the Dutch parliament will most likely lead to a deterioration in relations between the Netherlands and Turkey. It should be noted that this decision of the Netherlands was quite expected against the background of the deepening crisis in the Turkish-Dutch relations. The crisis between the two countries arose last year, after the Netherlands on 11 March 2017 banned the landing in Rotterdam of an airplane with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on board. Soon the Minister for Family and Social Policy of Turkey Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, who arrived in the Netherlands from Germany by car to participate in a meeting with the Turkish diaspora, collided with pressure. Police of the Netherlands first detained Fatma security officers Betul Sayan Kaya. The minister tried to get him to leave the car, and after her refusal they threatened to evacuate the car. As a result, Kaya was forced to leave the car, and escorted by police officers she was expelled to Germany. At the same time, police officers of the Netherlands dispersed with the use of dogs and equestrian clothes thousands of ethnic Turks gathered at the walls of the Consulate General in Rotterdam in support of the Turkish minister. It is noteworthy that the Netherlands warned the Turkish authorities in advance that they would not allow Turkish officials to take part in the actions. The Turkish Foreign Ministry demanded that the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Ankara, Cornelis van Rij, who was on vacation abroad at the time, did not return some time to fulfill his duties. Turkey after the crisis has put forward to the Netherlands side a number of conditions, the implementation of which would normalize relations between the two countries. However, Amsterdam refused to take counter steps. After it became clear that the problem between the two countries would not be resolved, the Dutch government decided to recall the ambassador to Ankara. The diplomat was recalled from Turkey on February 5. Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zilistra said that recent talks to resolve diplomatic problems between Turkey and the Netherlands have not yielded results. According to him, the negotiations are currently suspended.

The deputy chairman of the Heritage party, Armen Martirosyan, in an interview with ArmInfo comments on the recent domestic political processes in Armenia. He shares his vision of the role and functions of the future President of the country, justifies the desire of the incumbent president to become prime minister, comments on internal political processes in neighboring Azerbaijan.

ArmInfo. Recently, both positive and negative trends have been observed in the Syrian crisis, and it is not yet clear in which direction the events in this country will develop in the future. This February 14 at a press conference said the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Ruben Safrastyan.

ArmInfo. Aliyev's decision to hold early presidential elections was not spontaneous. On February 9, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Arman Navasardyan stated at a press conference.

ArmInfo. Greek and  Armenian Americans Press U.S. Senators to Block F-35 Sale to Turkey  -- Joint Campaign Warns against Dangers of Arming Anti-American  Erdogan Regime. 

ArmInfo. Turkey expressed dissatisfaction with the Vatican over the recognition of the events of 1915. According to Turkish media, this was said by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on the results of the visit to the Vatican. According to Erdogan, Pope Francis listened to his statements. "Pope Francis is in solidarity with Turkey over the so-called Armenian genocide," the Turkish leader said. Meanwhile, according to the Vatican Printing Hall, at the meeting of Francis with Erdogan touched on the bilateral relations between the Holy See and Turkey, the situation in the country and the situation of the Catholic Church in it, and the question of receiving numerous refugees. The parties also discussed the situation in the Middle East, with special emphasis on the status of Jerusalem, and stressed the need to promote peace and stability and the region through dialogue and negotiation, in the spirit of respect for human rights and international law. At the beginning of the meeting, the Pope gifted the Turkish president a medallion with the image of an angel killing a war demon Erdogan became the first head of Turkey in 59 years, who was received at the Vatican. Francis was the first to make an apostolic visit to Turkey in November 2014 at the invitation of the government. In 2016, during his visit to Armenia, the Pope recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire as before. This provoked the wrath of Ankara, who called the pontiff a distributor of the "mentality of the crusades."

ArmInfo.Мember of “Karabakh Committee” , adviser to the first President of Armenia on national security issues Ashot  Manucharyan in an interview with   ArmInfo discusses the logic of recent events in the Middle East, the Kurdish factor, real beneficiaries of global policy processes. He talks about the place of Armenia in the global system of political coordinates, the threats to national security of the country, predicts a change in Armenia's external perception and management.

ArmInfo.

ArmInfo. Armenia was committed to the implementation of the Zurich protocols from the day they were initiated - about ten years ago. On January 29, the summing up of the results of 2017, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated.

ArmInfo. In the third annual report on the state of the Human Freedom Index in the world of the Cato Institute (USA), Armenia ranked 54 among 159 countries. Azerbaijan, having risen to three positions, took the 128th place. Turkey dropped to 84th place from 16th position, Georgia was on the 40th place, having risen to 2 positions. Russia ranked 126th in the published rating, losing 14 positions compared to last year. The researchers compiled an index of human freedom based on 79 indicators of human freedoms in twelve categories, including rule of law, security, freedom of movement, religious practices, associations and civil society, quality legal system and protection of property rights, freedom of international trade, regulation of business, labor, credit.

ArmInfo.Press secretary of the ruling Republican Party, Vice Speaker of the Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov pointed to the main messages of the visit of Serzh Sargsyan to France and his speech in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

ArmInfo. Turkey is a powerful state, and we cannot compare Armenia's potential with the potential of the Turkish Republic. But this does not mean that Turkey has the right to speak with us in the language of preconditions. This was stated in his speech at the PACE winter session on January 24 by RA President Serzh Sargsyan.

ArmInfo. In certain circumstances, a local armed conflict in Afrin is able to spread to all the territories of Syria inhabited by Kurds.

ArmInfo. "Turkey's invasion of the territory of Syria is conditioned by both internal political and foreign policy factors," said Vardan Voskanyan, head of the department of Iranian studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Yerevan State University. On January 23, at a press conference in Yerevan, he stated that Erdogan's attempts to establish relations with the Kurds could be attributed to internal political factors, but all his attempts failed completely. Voskanyan stated that the main goal of Turkey at the moment is the maximum weakening of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. This party created the greatest problems for Turkey, of course, except for the Armenian issue. As for foreign policy factors, according to the expert, they can be attributed to Turkey's attempts to strengthen its influence in the region. "Despite the fact that there were certain agreements between Russia, Turkey and Iran with regard to Syria, which temporarily rallied them into a kind of triumvirate, Turkey was not entirely satisfied with its role, however, the current actions of Turkey are contrary to the interests of Iran," - Voskanyan said, while stressing that Washington may be involved in this process. According to the expert, if the US authorities render the PKK in Syria certain assistance, then the Kurds will be able to resist Turkey, however, if this assistance is not forthcoming, then in this case the Kurds will suffer a significant defeat. However, however that may be, the expert expressed confidence that Iran will, in one way or another, interfere in this process, and actively cooperate with the Kurds in order to oust Turkey from these territories. Note that at the end of last week Turkish aviation struck Syrian Afrina on Kurdish formations. Saturday on the beginning. The military operation under the name "Olive branch" was announced by the President of Turkey Recep Erdogan. Countries that were guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria, on December 22, following the results of the international meeting in Astana agreed to hold the Congress of the Syrian national dialogue in Sochi from 29 to 30 January. This forum will focus on the development of a new Syrian constitution and the holding of elections on its basis under the auspices of the United Nations.

Gagik Harutyunyan, the Director of Noravank Scientific and Educational Foundation in his interview with ArmInfo comments on the connections  of recent unrest in Iran with regional, global and geopolitical processes. He talks about the situation in Turkey, around the Kurdish problem. As well as  characterizes the development of science-accumulated  technologies in Armenia as a pledge to increase the degree of national security and the termination of the country's existence as an object of neocolonial policy.

ArmInfo. Turkey reiterated its support for Azerbaijan on the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

ArmInfo. The international human rights organization Freedom House has issued the next annual report "Freedom in the world of 2018: a crisis of democracy," which ranked Armenia among the "partially free" countries.

ArmInfo. Ankara's decision to acquire the latest Russian S-400 air defense systems is proof of Turkey's slow drift from NATO. Anatoly Tsyganok, director of the Military Forecasting Center of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis (Moscow), expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan will not be allowed to unleash another war around Karabakh with substantially reduced financial resources and Turkey. Anatoly Tsyganok, director of the Military Forecasting Center of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis (Moscow), expressed this opinion to ArmInfo. "The agreement on the ceasefire from 1994 as a whole will be observed not least because of a significant reduction in the financial revenues of Azerbaijan.I can say that the purchase of new types of weapons, in contrast to past years, has already become a significant problem for Baku," he said. According to the report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), only in 2015 Baku allocated 18% for military articles - up to $ 5 billion of all budget allocations. More than 85% of weapons Azerbaijan continues to import from Russia. According to unofficial data, during the years of Azerbaijan's independence, Moscow supplied weapons worth $ 12 billion to the country-participant of the Karabakh conflict. As a second factor in curbing the militancy of Baku regime, the military expert points out the lack of interest in the new Karabakh aggravation of Turkey. In this issue, according to his estimates, Ankara's position is consonant with the position of its temporary, but an ally in the person of Moscow. "Russia and Turkey will not want to spoil relations over Karabakh, it is unprofitable for the Kremlin or Ankara, these two countries will not simply allow Baku to initiate new military actions, which is why it is not necessary to predict the repetition of the April 2016 provocation in the near future. Despite periodic escalations on the line of contact, the ceasefire agreement will continue to be observed, in general, "the Tsyganok summed up. The OSCE Minsk Group has been dealing with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict since 1992, represented by the co-chairs from Russia, the United States and France. Currently, the settlement process is based on the Madrid Principles put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in 2007 and the updated Madrid Principles in 2009, including, among other things, the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent in the conflict zone.

ArmInfo.The US State Department has published new recommendations for American travelers.