Turkey, Armenia sign historic accord

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Armenia's withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan would help gain his parliament's approval for a peace accord signed between Turkey and Armenia. The accord aims to restore ties and open their shared border. Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan which was then fighting a losing battle against Armenian separatists. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony also attended by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. If the agreement comes into effect, it would boost European Union candidate Turkey's diplomatic clout in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit corridor for oil and gas to the West. Turkish officials told the two sides had many disagreements over each others' statements in Zurich, including oblique references to the Karabakh conflict. In the end, neither Davutolgu nor Nalbandian made public statements. Armenians demand that Turkey acknowledges the 1915 killings as genocide, a defining element in Armenian national identity. Under the deal, Turkey and Armenia will set up a commission of international experts to study the events. Nationalist lawmakers in both countries have threatened to vote against the deal.