The European Parliament this month published its yearly report on Turkiye and its accession process. As expected, very few positive remarks were made about it.

Tensions rose in Cyprus last month in the village of Pyla, on the border between the Turkish and Greek parts of the island. Pyla is inhabited by about 500 Turkish Cypriots and 850 Greek Cypriots.

There were high hopes not so long ago that Turkish-Syrian relations might be revived. This hope will not vanish for good, but an early recovery is not in sight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced legislation restricting civil rights because some members of the ruling coalition have been pushing to amend the law to restrict the powers of the Israeli Supreme Court with a simple majority of 61 votes out of 120.

According to the terms of the ceasefire agreement brokered in November 2020 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Lachin Corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh had to be transferred to Azerbaijan in August 2022. The corridor links Armenia to Azerbaijan’s autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The EU has given its first positive signal regarding the softening of its relations with Turkiye. This signal came last week from EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, who said that the Turkiye-EU Customs Union might be updated by the autumn.

Russia last month announced that it had brought an end to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and that vessels leaving Ukrainian harbors would be considered a military target. This deal was an agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Turkiye, with the participation of the UN.