BY ALLEN YEKIKAN

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Tuesday hailed what he called progress in the ongoing talks to normalize his country's strained relations with Armenia. His remarks come amid growing concern in Yerevan that Ankara's increasingly uncompromising preconditions on Armenia may be guiding the negotiations in an untenable direction.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian noted that Azebaijan's attempts to present its stance as the opinion accepted by the international community cause serious damage and endangers the negotiation process.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Tuesday called on the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments to summon up the political will to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Rice said the long-running territorial dispute is holding back both countries.

Now that Kosovo gained its independence Nagorno-Karabakh's international recognition should come next. If freedom is permitted for one nation, it's permitted for all nations.

Officials in Armenia and Azerbaijan have confirmed an outbreak of military clashes in two regions of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia Vartan Oskanian informed today on serious violation of truce by Azerbaijan, as a result of which there are killed and wounded.

On November 25 Nagorno-Karabakh celebrates the 50th anniversary of the legend of the war in Karabakh Monte Melkonyan (Avo) who was killed in June 1993. The main celebration will be in Martuni where there is a monument to Monte. There will be classes at schools devoted to the 50th anniversary of the hero, the correspondent of Regnum in Stepanakert reports.

Bako Sahakyan finished his visit today in the Greater Boston area answering questions and presenting his gratitude for Armenians in the diaspora and there support for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Incidents at the Armenian-Azeri border are mostly provoked by the Azeri side, Chief of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, colonel general Seyran Ohanyan told reporters Monday.

The NKR National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations commented on the statement of CoE Secretary General Terry Davis running that “there is a great number of distinctions between the Nagorno Karabakh and Kosovo conflicts, there is no separatist regime in Kosovo, the region is governed by the UN, security is guaranteed by the EU servicemen, which is not peculiar to Nagorno Karabakh”. The statement was made at a joint press conference with Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian in Yerevan.

“Passage of H.Res.106 by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on October 10 has resonated around the world. From Ireland to China, from India to South America, throughout Europe, and most every town in the United States, a worldwide public debate has begun,” AAA Country Director for Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, Arpi Vartanian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

“The U.S. wants a stable and peaceful South Caucasus,” U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ann Derse told reporters Wednesday.