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| Turkey and Armenia set for ties | Turkey and Armenia set for ties |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Turkey and its neighbour Armenia have agreed to hold talks on establishing diplomatic ties after decades of bitter mistrust on both sides. | Turkey and its neighbour Armenia have agreed to hold talks on establishing diplomatic ties after decades of bitter mistrust on both sides. |
| Their foreign ministries announced the Swiss-brokered development in a joint statement issued in the Turkish and Armenian capitals, Ankara and Yerevan. | Their foreign ministries announced the Swiss-brokered development in a joint statement issued in the Turkish and Armenian capitals, Ankara and Yerevan. |
| Turkish spokesman Burak Ozugergin said the talks should take about six weeks. | Turkish spokesman Burak Ozugergin said the talks should take about six weeks. |
| The two countries' dispute centres on the fate of Armenians under Turkish Ottoman rule nearly a century ago. | The two countries' dispute centres on the fate of Armenians under Turkish Ottoman rule nearly a century ago. |
| Turkey has resisted widespread calls for it to recognise the mass killing of Armenians during World War I as an act of genocide. | Turkey has resisted widespread calls for it to recognise the mass killing of Armenians during World War I as an act of genocide. |
| Hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians died in 1915 | |
| The countries said on Monday that their parliaments would be asked to ratify protocols after a six-week political consultation period. | The countries said on Monday that their parliaments would be asked to ratify protocols after a six-week political consultation period. |
| A roadmap for the normalisation of the relationship between them was agreed in April. | A roadmap for the normalisation of the relationship between them was agreed in April. |
| The foreign ministries said the two countries had agreed to start internal discussions on two protocols: one establishing diplomatic relations and the other developing bilateral ties. | |
| "The political consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which the two protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective parliaments for ratification," their joint statement said. | |
| Modern Armenia, which took shape as a Soviet republic in 1920, has only had diplomatic relations with Turkey as part of the USSR. | |
| Since declaring independence in 1991, it has pressed for recognition of what it says was genocide. | |
| Relations have also been complicated by Turkish support for Azerbaijan in its armed conflict with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. |