As international mediatiors return to the region this weekend, reports of incidents on the front line, and a return to maximalist rhetoric, continue to poison the atmosphere

The Turkish government had accused the group of "aiding armed terrorist organizations" through civil society actions in Turkey.

The Afrin events are being used to assert the notion that without Russian military guarantees, and a Russian military base deployed in Armenia, Yerevan will be under a constant threat from a potential Turkish offensive, says Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed

"There needs to be a Davos in Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi, and in every town and village in the South Caucasus for ideas to be generated, visions to be formed, and for the momentum for modernisation to gather speed", says Dennis Sammut in this commentary

The Russian co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Process, Igor Popov, told APA news agency that the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed this at their meeting in Krakow last week, but that some details still had to be worked out

The incident is said to have happened near the village of Kuropatkino. Armenian sources say Azerbaijan suffered casualties in the incident, but Azerbaijani sources say the situation on the Line of Contact is calm.

The French President welcomed his Armenian counterpart at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday for discussions on bilateral relations and international issues.

Astronaut Yuri Gagarin, singer-songwriter and actor Vladimir Vysotsky and Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov top the poll

The meeting in Krakow between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan did not lead to a breakthrough, and none was expected. But there appears to be a change of gear in the negotiations, says Dennis Sammut in this week's Monday Commentary

Early reports suggest that the Kurdish militias are using a tactic of melting into the civilian population rather than defending military positions, complicating the Turkish operation