Closer to reconciliation

A spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, Burak Ozugerin, told news agency AP that the talks leading to agreements for setting up and developing relations between the two countries should last up to six weeks.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministries of Turkey, Armenia and Switzerland confirmed the six-week timeframe.

"The political consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which the two protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective parliaments for the ratification on each side," it said.

"Both sides will make their best efforts for the timely progression of the ratification in line with their constitutional and legal procedures."

Decades-long hostility

In April of this year, Armenia and Turkey said they had agreed on a roadmap to normalize bilateral ties after decades of tense relations.

At the time the two countries announced in a joint statement that they had agreed to "develop good neighborly relations in mutual respect and progress peace, security and stability in the entire region."

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic ties since Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The two neighbors have a history of mutual distrust. They have been locked in a bitter dispute over the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognized internationally as genocide - and some countries have done so.

But Turkey has condemned widespread efforts to have them defined as genocide.

sp/ap/dpa

Editor: Chuck Penfold