ARMENIA STUTTERS OVER TURKEY ACCORD

EuroNews
2/armenia-stutters-over-turkey-accord/
April 22 2010
France

Armenia has frozen the ratification of a deal with long-time foe Turkey
to reopen their shared border and establish diplomatic relations.

The two countries have long been divided over the 1915 mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman forces during the First World War.

Armenia labels those deaths as a genocide but Turkey rejects that term.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 because of its war with
Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh.

Decades of frosty relations appeared to have thawed when Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart, Edward
Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated agreement on October 10.

Four days later, Armenian President Serge Sarkissian attended Armenia’s
World Cup qualifier in Turkey.

His Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul kicked off the football diplomacy
in 2008. Gul he was in the stands for an earlier World Cup game
between the two nations.