The current year marked the beginning of establishing new world principles and new geopolitical lines that used to seem quite unlikely till recently. Europe, as well as the rest of the world were in static position after the World War II, the result of which was the borders outlined in Potsdam and finally fixed at Helsinki summit in 1975.

At last happened what was long foreseen to happen in Azerbaijan; Parliament «asked» Ilham Aliyev to become a life-term President of the country. Though, that was all wrapped up in «democratic» package. On December 18 Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Medjlis) made a decision to send the Draft on Holding a Constitutional Referendum to the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan with the aim to receive «Legal Opinion» on introducing changes into the Constitution.

In the afternoon of December 18 the number of collected signatures under the petition "Armenians, we apologize" reached 13315. The fact itself was quite predictable and there are more than enough reasons for it. No matter how hard Official Ankara tries to assure that Turkey is a country of freedom of speech and expression, blocking of YouTube and other websites proves the contrary. The strange point is that the Turkish authorities waited 2 days after which Prime-Minister Erdogan finally voiced his «disapproval» of the initiative.

The quests of national identity led Turkish intellectuals to an, at first glance, highly unexpected action. For the last few days the entire world press has been exclusively writing about confessing «butchers», remorse, duty before your offspring - in a word, about anything with reference to Turkey. Such burst of interest towards the Turkish nation could also be observed 2 years ago, when Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul. People then carried placards saying "We are all Hrant Dink", "We are all Armenians". And now Turkish intellectuals call for apology to Armenians for the killings in the Ottoman Empire in the years of the World War I.

There exist only two countries most of whose population live outside their historical homeland. These countries are Israel and Armenia. 2/3 of Armenians and Jews live outside their fatherland, and this fact plays a pernicious role in the countries' development. What the Armenian and Jewish Diasporas have in common is that they both appeared as a result of persecution. The only difference is that if the Jews were exiled from their habitat for 2000 years on end, the Armenian Diaspora was formed comparatively recently - at the beginning of the 20th century. The Armenians' expatriation from Western Armenia reached its peak in 1915 when the Young Turks massacred and deported almost 2 million Armenians. Thus, it was exactly the Armenian Genocide that caused Armenians to disperse all over the world, a fact we have been repeatedly writing and speaking about.

Hardly had the terror over Norashen calmed down, when Georgia or, to be more exact, the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) resumed stirring up the trouble. On December 11 the Christian Democratic Movement of Georgia decided to hold a rally in front of the Armenian Embassy in Tbilisi. According to Head of the movement Giorgi Andriadze, the rally was staged to demand 'return' of Georgian churches situated in Armenia.

A group of Turkish intellectuals recently sent a petition letter to Armenians, apologizing publicly for the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915. The fact itself is already unique if taking into account Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code, which "promises" to arrest those who will openly discuss the Armenian Genocide. Nevertheless, professors Baskэn Oran and Ahmet Эnsel, journalists Ali Bayramoрlu and Cengiz Aktar personally apologized for the "great disaster Ottoman Armenians suffered in 1915".

The meeting between the OSCE Foreign Ministers in Helsinki is already over. As expected, the major issues to be discussed at the summit were the situation in the Caucasus region, particularly the problem of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation, and, naturally, the Russian-Georgian relations. It would, of course, be naive to expect anything new in the Karabakh problem, in spite of the fact that certain forces in Armenia and Azerbaijan hurried with their conclusions concerning the dates of regulation.

South Caucasus states made another step towards European integration. The European Commission decided to back the initiative of "Eastern Partnership", which presupposes closer cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and the Ukraine. According to Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, only with strong political will and commitment on both sides will the Eastern Partnership achieve its objective of political association and economic integration. "We need to make an even greater investment in mutual stability and prosperity. This will be quickly compensated by important political and economic benefits and will lead to more stability and security both for the EU and for our Eastern partners," Barroso stated.

A two-day international conference of Ministers of Culture of CE states was held in Baku. As usual, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis distinguished himself, and though we can't get used to his statements, every time he says something new. Sometimes it even seems that speeches of Mr. Davis are written in Baku, not in Strasbourg. Naturally, Ministers of Culture met to discuss issues of preservation of cultural heritage, security of historical monuments and much more. It is quite obvious that the Armenian delegation did not arrive in Baku for security reasons.