Stories under this heading cover Turkey as well as the Levant – a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia, consisting of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu announced on Monday night (27 March) that he would delay a key part of controversial plans to overhaul the justice system, saying that he would pause the legislation to prevent a "rupture among our people".
The announcement came after mass protests across Israel on the night of 26-27 March when Prime Minister Netanyahu fired his defence minister after he spoke out against controversial judicial reform plans.
The Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced on Friday (24 March) that Armenia and Turkey have agreed to open their land border, closed for some three decades, "before the start of this year's tourist season".
Speaking at a session of the Foreign Relations Committee of the National Assembly of Armenia, Mirzoyan said, "we reaffirmed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey the readiness to open the Armenian-Turkish border for citizens of third countries and persons with diplomatic passports before the start of this year's tourist season."
