Armenia Removes Protocols Signed With Turkey From Parliamentary Agenda

RIA Novosti
April 22, 2010
YEREVAN

The ruling coalition of the Armenian National Assembly said on Thursday
it would take Armenian-Turkish protocols off the parliamentary agenda,
the parliament’s press service said.

Strained relations between Armenia and Turkey began to improve on
October 10, 2009, when Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Devutoglu signed protocols on
establishing of diplomatic relations and the developing bilateral
relations at the University of Zurich.

The documents were to be ratified by both countries in order to come
into force.

The Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara’s
initiative. Bilateral relations between the countries are complicated
by Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan’s position in the Nagorny Karabakh
problem and Turkey’s reaction to the international recognition of
the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I,
which Ankara consistently denies.