Armenia and Turkey here on Saturday signed landmark protocols aimed at ending their long-time hostilities and normalizing bilateral relations.

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian (seated L) and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sign documents during the signing ceremony of a peace deal between the two countries in Zurich October 10, 2009.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The obstacle was finally overcome by the two sides under the mediation of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and in the end no statements were made by either side.

According to the protocols, the two countries will establish diplomatic ties and open long-sealed common borders. They will also try to solve their historical dispute over the World War I massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

But the two countries’ parliaments have to ratify the protocols before they can take effect.

Those present at Saturday’s signing ceremony also included such heavyweights as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Switzerland has acted as mediator in the process to normalize bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey for over a year.

On August 31, the two countries agreed to launch internal political consultations culminating in the signing of the two protocols in spite of domestic oppositions.

Armenia and Turkey have had no diplomatic or economic ties since Armenia declared its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. The two neighbors have long been at odds over the World War I massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

Armenia claims that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War I before modern Turkey was born in 1923. But Turkey insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia over a disputed territory and has said the border could be opened only after the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territory.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet