Turkey, Armenia sign historic deal to normalise ties
ZURICH – Turkey and Armenia on Saturday signed historic pacts to normalise relations and open their shared border.
"This evening we witnessed a historic signing," said Phil Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs after a curtailed but eventful ceremony in the Swiss city of Zurich.
The deal sponsored by top European and US officials was only squeezed through by a frenetic diplomatic scramble, after it was held up for more than three hours by a "last minute hitch" over speeches the two sides were to make after the signing, officials said.
Armenia's foreign ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said there were "unacceptable formulations for the Armenian side" in parts of a speech to be delivered by Turkey's top diplomat, the Novosti-Armenia agency reported.
"Suddenly the text was being discussed... once one raises a problem, everybody raised problems," a Turkish official said.
But Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu ultimately shook hands after signing the two protocols at the University of Zurich.
The two ministers and US, Russian, French and EU counterparts immediately left the room instead of making scheduled statements, in an agreement to bypass the hitch, diplomats said.
The bridge-building by the two governments after more than a year of discrete Swiss-mediated talks is still hampered by fierce opposition from critics at home.
Stepan Safarian, a leading member of Armenia's opposition Heritage party, told AFP that the protocols brought "a period of great risks and big uncertainty."
A leader of Turkey's main opposition party, Onur Oymen, on CNN-Turk television accused the Ankara government of "abdication in the face of external pressures" and said the deal was "very worrying for the future of our country."
The protocols still have to clear the hurdle of parliamentary ratification in each country before they can take effect.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a public show of support for the Turkish- Armenian deal.
"We recognized how hard it is to move forward and what courage it takes to move forward in the face of very strong opposition in both countries," Clinton said after flying out of Zurich.
US President Barack Obama telephoned Clinton as she headed to Zurich airport after the event.
A senior US official said Obama "was very excited" by the deal and considered it a "big step forward".
The two protocols establish diplomatic ties, set up regular dialogue including on their emotionally-charged history, and open the Armenian-Turkish border, a US official said.
Observers say official reconciliation could allow landlocked Armenia to gain a much-needed economic boost, while Solana underlined that it would have an important impact on Turkey and Armenia's relations with the EU.
The European Union welcomed the deals, saying they would ease tensions in the southern Caucasus.
Although both the Turkish and Armenian governments can command parliamentary majorities, the domestic climate prevents them from rushing ahead with ratification by lawmakers.
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said in a nationwide address a day after protestors took to the streets of the capital Yerevan, that Armenia has "no alternative to establishing ties with Turkey without preconditions."
Under the deal with Turkey, a commission is meant to study the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians.
Critics believe that calls into question claims of genocide in 1915-1917, when they say 1.5 million of Armenians were systematically killed by Ottoman Turks.
Turkey vehemently denies genocide, having shunned diplomatic ties over Yerevan's campaign on the issue.
Another long-running dispute over Nagorny-Karabakh -- an Armenian-majority enclave which broke free from Turkish-backed Azerbaijan after a war -- is also dogging reconciliation.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Azerbaijan and the Turkish government has been accused at home of making concessions that would sell out Azerbaijan.
