Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a road map to normalise ties after nearly a century of hostility, a move that would boost Turkey's relations with the EU and the US but could upset its ally, oil-rich Azerbaijan. The deal, weeks after President Barack Obama urged Turkey to resolve the issue, came on the eve of the commemoration of mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
The two states have since last year held high-level talks to restore ties, which could mean reopening a border shut in 1993. "The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process and they have agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalisation of their bilateral relations," the foreign ministries of both countries said late on Wednesday, without elaborating. The years of stand-off isolated impoverished Armenia and obstructed Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
"We welcome the progress in the normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia," said a joint statement by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
"The Commission supports both countries' diplomatic efforts towards full normalisation of bilateral relations, including the opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey," they added. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Muslim ally Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.