Today in Eastern Turkey at 15:41 Yerevan time, about 19 km away from city Van a major earthquake struck Van Province. Many buildings collapsed in central Van, in the village of Tabanli and in other neighboring territories. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a magnitude of 7.2 and depth of 20 kilometers, though Turkey's National Earthquake Monitoring Center reported a magnitude of 6.6 and depth of 5.0 kilometers. The magnitude of this quake is more than 1988 Spitak earthquake's. In Yerevan (192km away), the earthquake force residents to live their homes from high rise buildings.

As reported by Turkish Huberturk, renovation works of the Armenian St. Kirakos church are conducted in Diarbakyr. The project is estimated $ 2.5 million and financed by the "St. Kirakos" foundation. The foundation, chaired by Tekin Papuchyan, is mainly financed by Diarbakyr-origin Armenians. Works are intended to be completed in 2011. The liturgy is intended to be conducted twice a year and it is also planned to install cross on the church. It is sad to note that currently only 8-10 Armenian families live in the city, although 50 years ago there were around 1000 Armenians living in Diarbakyr. According to the records of city government, the church was built in XV century. It is interesting that after the destruction of the old bell tower struck by lightning in 1913, the architect-builder David Hzarchyan built a new tower in elevated Gothic style that was much higher and more beautiful than the old one. However, soon in notorious 1915 the new tower was destroyed by Turkish artillery. Currently Diarbakyr, built on the site of the one of former capitals of Great Armenia-Tigranakert, unofficially considered the capital of Turkish Kurdistan...

The head of Georgian State Electorsystem company (GSE) Sulkhan Zumburidze and Vice President of Azerenerji Marlen Asgarov signed a memorandum on further development of cooperation between Azerbaijani and Georgian systems to create an "energy bridge" with Turkey, Turan reported. According to GSE, the point is Azerbaijan's joining the construction of Akhaltsikhe-Borchkha electric transmission line that is to connect energy systems of Georgia and Turkey.

Over 30 Turkish construction companies are expected to take part in the international exhibition "The Caucasus: construction & renovation 2010" to be held in Yerevan on April 2-4, 2010. The Business 24 news website reports that about 100 companies from Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Turkey will take part in the exhibition organized by Logos Expo Center. The company will present construction technologies, building materials, furniture, sanitaryware, etc...Last November Logos Expo signed a cooperation agreement with the Turkish Turkel Fair organization. Under the agreement, Turkish companies will participate in all the exhibitions organized by Logos Expo, which is impetus to economic progress in both the states, said a Logos Expo representative said.