Candan and Saner, who will attend the sessions until the 27 of April, first attended the political group meetings of the political parties which their parties are member of.

Accordingly, Candan attended and addressed the Socialist, Democrat and Greens Group meeting and Saner attended and addressed the Conservative Group meeting.

Both provided information about the Cyprus Conference held in Crans-Montana and the course of the Cyprus negotiations process during their speeches.

The delegation is also attending the committee meetings. Within this framework, while both attended the Political Affairs and Democracy Committee, Candan attended the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee and Saner attended the Culture, Science, Education and Media Committee meetings.

The delegation also came together with a member of the PACE and former UN Secretary General's Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide.

The delegation also held bilateral meetings with other national assembly delegations being represented at the PACE.

[07] Akinci met with a Maronites' delegation

According to a statement issued by the "presidency", during the meeting which lasted 45 minutes the actions that the breakaway regime will take towards the Maronites and the renovation of Prophet Elijah's monastery were discussed

The statemenst further said that the delegation thanked Akinci because the monastery is part of the monuments that the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage will renovate.

(CS)

[08] The "local elections" will be held on June 24th

The paper also reports that the "local elections" will be held as it was decided before, on June 24th.

[09] The three foreign students arrested for taking pictures of the fence off Varosha city were "convicted by a military court"

They will be let free on Friday.

The paper reports on the issue under the title: "The Varosha is closed the shame is opened".

(CS)

[10] Varoglu is the new general secretary of the Communal Democracy Party

Yesim Dede and Mehmet Harmanci were also elected members of the central board of the party.

(CS)

[11] Turkey rejects Trump's description of 1915 events

President Donald Trump issued an annual commemoration of the 1915 events using the Armenian term "Meds Yeghern" ("Great calamity" in Armenian) in a statement on Tuesday.

"We reject the inaccurate expressions and the subjective interpretation of history in the written statement by Mr. Donald Trump, President of the USA, released on 24 April 2018 regarding the events of 1915," the statement said.

The statement said that Turkey's expectation from the U.S. administration was a "fair assessment of a period during which all the peoples of the Ottoman Empire suffered tremendously".

The statement reminded President Trump that "during the same period more than 500,000 Muslims were slaughtered as a result of the events in which Armenian insurgents took part".

It added that Turkey continues to offer the establishment of a Joint Historical Commission "in order to shed light on this painful period of history and has opened its archives to researchers".

The statement said that Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during World War I were commemorated on April 24 in a ceremony held at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul "suiting the respect they deserve and befitting the 800-year long friendship between Turks and Armenians".

Meanwhile, the statement also recommended that the U.S. administration consider the message of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Armenian Church in Istanbul during the commemoration ceremony "addressing the descendants of Ottoman Armenians, which reflects Turkey's approach to this sensitive issue".

The Turkish President offered condolences to the families of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during the 1915 events. He also offered condolences to the Turkish nation over the losses of life of millions of Ottoman citizens due to wars, migrations, conflicts, and diseases during the same period.

"Besides all these points, we think it is in line with common sense that the statement made by the U.S. President remained within international legal norms and did not refer to baseless genocide allegations," it added.

[12] HDP may nominate former leader Demirtas as presidential candidate

"Considering the party's grassroots, it is not easy [for the opposition] to have a joint candidate. We have different principles. Every party should present their own nominees in the first round [of the presidential election]. The door to the second round will be opened by strong candidates. Thus, there may be an agreement on an opposition candidate [in the second round]," he told daily Hurriyet.

Temelli ruled out the possibility of their support for IYI (Good) Party leader Meral Aksener's candidacy, pointing to values upheld by HDP voters. "Our grassroots will not vote [for Aksener]. That is why all parties should nominate their candidates, taking the second round into consideration. Their candidate should be inclusive of everyone," he said.

When asked if they would vote for former President Abdullah Gul, Temelli said he is a "respected politician and should be taken into account," but there has not been any formal contacts about the probability of his nomination.

"We have set up a pool of candidates. Our party assembly will convene before our central executive committee on May 2 and we will declare our candidate on May 3. Selahattin Demirtas is in the pool of the candidates," Temelli said.

[13] Turkey dismisses PACE's call for postponement of upcoming elections

PACE on April 24 called on Turkey to "postpone" the June 24 snap elections, citing the ongoing state of emergency in the country.

On the same issue, Ankara Anatolia news agency (24.04.18) reported that Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag argued on Tuesday that the Council of Europe urging Turkey to postpone its early elections over its state of emergency shows a double standard, as no one made an issue of the same situation in France. "When France held [2017] elections during the state of emergency, PACE didn't mind election security and didn't urge France to postpone the elections, but when it comes to Turkey, it brings up the EU criteria, state of emergency and election security, which is meaningful and shows a double standard," said on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

Bozdag called the move "unacceptable" and "interference in Turkey's internal affairs and elections."

Separately, EU Minister Omer Celik also slammed the PACE move, calling it an intrusion in the sovereign decision of Turkish citizens. Calling it "a completely political decision," Celik said on Twitter: "Turkey knows how to decide when the elections should be. Nobody has the right to intervene except the Turkish citizens and the institutions that represent them."

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TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION

(DPs/ AM)

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