U.S. hopes Armenian, Turkish parliaments will ratify protocols
06:43 14/10/2009 MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - The United States hopes that agreements signed between Armenia and Turkey will be ratified by their parliaments, a U.S. assistant secretary of state said.
Turkey and Armenia signed on Saturday historic accords on restoring diplomatic relations and opening borders. The documents have yet to be ratified by the country's parliaments, and face fierce opposition from nationalist parties in both countries.
"We hope that having signed it, that the parliaments will ratify it and move towards open borders and normalized relations," Philip Crowley told a daily press briefing.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara, following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two republics.
The region in Azerbaijan, which has a largely Armenian population, has been a source of conflict between the former Soviet republics since the late 1980s and is de facto independent. Azerbaijan strongly opposes normalization of ties between Ankara and Yerevan before the Nagorny Karabakh conflict is resolved.
Armenia and Turkey agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations under Swiss mediation this April. The draft pact between the countries was backed by the United States and European Union.
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