The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia signed the historic protocols late Saturday to normalize their troubled relations after the resolution of last-minute differences. The ceremony that took place after a three-hour delay began when the host country, Switzerland's Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey invited Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoğlu and Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian to the table. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French FM Bernard Kouchner, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and EU's foreign policy Chief Javier Solana were present during the ceremony.
The crisis occuped when Turkey and Armenia attempted to interfere in the verbal statements they will make. In his speech, Nalbandian wanted to refer to the 1915 killings of the Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire by using the word "genocide," considered as an attempt to relax the Armenian diaspora and the opposition in Armenia. The Turkish side, on the other hand, wanted to refer to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, something Armenia says has nothing to do with the normalization of ties with Turkey, NTV broadcaster reported from Zurich.
It was later announced that the signing ceremony was delayed for an indefinite time but there were ongoing negotiations over the wording of the verbal statements. While the delegations were returning to the University of Zurich, Nalbandian was still absent and instead, Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour was present, raising questions if the protocols would be signed at the level of the two countries' ambassadors to Switzerland or the foreign ministers. The Armenian Foreign Ministry announced the protocols would be signed around 9 p.m. The crisis was overcome when the parties agreed not to give verbal statements. In the following process, the accords need to be forwarded to the two countries' parliaments for ratification. On Monday, the Turkish Cabinet is expected to discuss the documents before sending them to Parliament.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-and-armenia-sign-historic-protocols-2009-10-10
