The Associated Press March 1, 2018 Thursday 5:01 PM GMT Armenia annuls normalization protocols with Turkey YEREVAN, Armenia YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Armenia's president has annulled long-dormant protocols aimed at normalizing ties with Turkey. According to his spokesman, Vladimir Akopyan, President Serzh Sargsyan made the announcement Thursday at a meeting of the country's security council. The so-called Zurich Protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara in 2009 were designed to open the Turkey-Armenia border and normalize diplomatic ties. The agreement required ratification by both countries' parliaments. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic-Armenian region of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh now is under the control of forces that claim to be local ethnic Armenians but that Azerbaijan alleges include Armenian troops. The countries are also embroiled in a dispute over the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks.