Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan on Tuesday defended its human rights record and accused "jealous" forces of seeking to tarnish the country's image as it prepares to host the Eurovision song contest.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey warned France on Friday their political and economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the French parliament passed a draft law making it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

The following story recalls the experiences of Reuters photographer Shamil Zhumatov when the leaders of the newly independent post-Soviet republics gathered in his home city of Alma-Ata in 1991. Zhumatov has been a Reuters photographer in ex-Soviet Central Asia for the last 17 years and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He lived the first 20 years of his life in the Soviet Union and the second 20 years as a citizen of Kazakhstan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Vilnius Monday to promote democracy and human rights in the ex-Soviet bloc and Central Asia, including media rights in the digital age, aides said.

TBILISI (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Russia before a cheering crowd in Georgia on Friday of violating the ceasefire that ended the 2008 war in the Caucasus and assured his audience that the door to the European Union remains open.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said France should confront its colonial past before giving lessons to others on how to face history, in an angry response Friday to a call by President Nicolas Sarkozy for Ankara to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

BAKU/YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations on Thursday after three soldiers were killed on a ceasefire line near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region before a visit to the Caucasus by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The US will support Russia's bid to resolve the conflict in Libya provided Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi steps down, President Barack Obama told his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev Monday.

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, speaking during the biggest military parade in Baku since the fall of the Soviet Union, promised to boost army spending and gain control of the territories disputed with Armenia.

YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) - Armenia and Azerbaijan blamed each other on Saturday for failing to reach an agreement on a framework document that would set the stage for an end to their two decade-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

MOSCOW, June 24 - Bitter neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan are under pressure from global powers for a breakthrough on Friday in their long and bloody dispute over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's defense ministry was quoted Saturday as saying Azeri troops would eventually be sent to seize back the Armenian-backed breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan and Armenia on Thursday exchanged prisoners detained by the two sides after the conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, in a gesture of good will between long-term foes.

Armenia says it has air defense missiles and warns Azerbaijan against renewed conflict. Armenia's Defense Ministry has announced that it has S-300 air defense missiles and says it made the announcement to remind neighboring Azerbaijan of the dangers of renewing military conflict.

ASTANA (Reuters) - Unresolved conflicts across the former Soviet Union thwarted attempts by Europe's main security watchdog to adopt new powers on Friday, sending world leaders home empty-handed from the first OSCE summit in over a decade.

ASTANA (Reuters) - The United States called on Europe's main security watchdog on Wednesday to prove its mettle by giving more support to the war in Afghanistan and working to resolve simmering conflicts across the former Soviet Union.

ASTANA (Reuters) - Heads of state flying to Kazakhstan's showpiece capital for a security summit next week will be met with fanfare as Astana shrugs off critics of its year at the helm of Europe's top security and rights watchdog.

BAKU (Reuters) - Monitors rebuked oil-producing Azerbaijan on Monday for holding a flawed parliamentary election that tightened President Ilham Aliyev's hold over the former Soviet republic, a strategic partner of the West.

BAKU (Reuters) - The oil-producing former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan holds a parliamentary election on Sunday that the opposition says is stage-managed to give victory to loyalists of President Ilham Aliyev.

Armenia on Saturday accused neighboring Azerbaijan of using its oil wealth to fuel "military adventure," amid mounting tensions between the two over a disputed region.