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Turkey, Armenia Delay Signing Accord


The signing of an accord to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia was delayed Saturday due to disagreements over the statements the two sides will make.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Zurich, Switzerland, for the signing ceremony, but returned to her hotel just before she was to attend the ceremony.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said U.S. officials are helping the two sides come to an agreement on the statements they are going to make.

The Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers (Edward Nalbandian and Ahmet Davutoglu) are in Zurich to sign the accord, which would end a century of bitterness over the World War One killings of Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule.

If ratified, the deal would restore diplomatic ties and open the countries' sealed border.

But analysts say strong domestic opposition in both Armenia and Turkey will likely slow the ratification in their respective parliaments.

Armenians want the World War One massacres recognized as genocide -- a label Turkey strongly rejects.

The agreement calls for a joint commission of independent historians to examine the genocide issue, which some experts say is a concession to Turkey since the panel will reopen an issue Armenia says has already been confirmed.

An ongoing territorial dispute between Armenia and Turkey's ally, Azerbaijan, could also complicate efforts to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Friday that talks with his Armenian counterpart (Serzh Sarkisyan) over the disputed enclave had failed, contradicting previous statements by Russia.

The two presidents discussed the issue Thursday in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, during a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group comprised of most of the former Soviet republics.

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