ARMENIA THANKS SWISS FOR DEAL WITH TURKEY

AZG DAILY
13-11-2009

According to swissinfo.ch, Armenia has thanked Switzerland for the
"very important" role it played in brokering a landmark accord between
the Caucasus state and Turkey.

During a visit to Bern on Tuesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard
Nalbandian said he hoped his country’s parliament would soon ratify
the agreement normalising relations with Ankara.

The news agency reports that the accord was signed in Zurich last
month and it calls for the opening of borders between the former foes,
and for the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Nalbandian, speaking at a news conference alongside his Swiss
counterpart, Micheline Calmy-Rey, said Switzerland’s mediation
efforts required "determination and restraint, imagination, prudence
and patience".

For her part, Calmy-Rey thanked Nalbandian for showing "political
will and engagement" and hoped that Armenian-Turkish relations would
soon be normalised.

Turkey and Armenia are pursuing rapprochement after almost a century of
animosity stemming from the First World War mass killings of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks.

Their common border was closed 16 years ago while Armenia fought a
war with Azerbaijan, a state with close ties to Turkey.

Nalbandian and Calmy-Rey signed two bilateral agreements during the
Armenian foreign minister’s visit – a treaty on air traffic and a
deal doing away with the necessity for diplomats to apply for visas,
the Swiss news agency reports.