The Associated Press
March 1, 2018 Thursday 5:01 PM GMT
Armenia annuls normalization protocols with Turkey
YEREVAN, Armenia
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Armenia's president has annulled long-dormant
protocols aimed at normalizing ties with Turkey.
According to his spokesman, Vladimir Akopyan, President Serzh Sargsyan
made the announcement Thursday at a meeting of the country's security
council.
The so-called Zurich Protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara in 2009
were designed to open the Turkey-Armenia border and normalize
diplomatic ties. The agreement required ratification by both
countries' parliaments.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest of the war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic-Armenian region of
Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh now is under the control of forces that
claim to be local ethnic Armenians but that Azerbaijan alleges include
Armenian troops.
The countries are also embroiled in a dispute over the massacre of 1.5
million Armenians a century ago by Ottoman Turks.