Turkey hopes to open Armenian border by year-end

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu holds a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari (not pictured) in Baghdad August 31, 2009.

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Tuesday it hoped to open its border with long-time foe Armenia by the end of the year under a protocol to establish diplomatic ties, in what would end one of Europe's most intractable rivalries.

The two countries, which have no diplomatic ties and a history of animosity stemming from the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One, announced late on Monday they would sign accords within six weeks under a plan to end a century of hostility.

"If everything goes as planned, if mutual steps are taken, the borders could be opened around New Year," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish NTV television during a visit to northern Cyprus.

The plan to normalize ties was announced in April, but Monday's statement marked the first real progress.

Reopening the border and establishing ties with Armenia would increase predominantly Muslim Turkey's influence in the region and aid its faltering bid to join the European Union.

Ties would also give landlocked Armenia, reeling from the global financial crisis, access to Turkish and European markets.

The EU, which has long asked candidate member Turkey to normalize ties with its neighbor as a way to improve regional security, welcomed the protocol agreement and urged Ankara and Yerevan to implement the protocols rapidly.

"This agreement should contribute to peace and stability in the South Caucasus," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement.

Under the agreement, both sides would hold domestic consultations before signing two protocols on the establishment of diplomatic ties and the development of bilateral relations.

The protocols would have to be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries.

In his first comment on the issue, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stressed that the accords would not go into effect until the Turkish parliament had approved them.

Russia, which has good relations both with Turkey and Armenia, hailed progress in their talks as a major boon for peace and stability in the region.

"We hope that the improvement of two neighbors'' relations will revive bilateral trade and economic contacts and will have a positive impact on the social and economic situation in both states, which is important in conditions of the global financial crisis," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

TURKEY DENIES GENOCIDE

Turkey rejects claims 1915 killings amounted to genocide, and says many people were killed on both sides of the conflict.

The agreement, brokered under Swiss mediation, does not say how the sensitive issue of genocide accusations will be dealt with.

Anticipation has been growing ahead of a planned visit by Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Turkey on October 14, when he is due to attend the return leg of a World Cup qualifying football match between the two countries.

Sarksyan has said he will not travel to the game, the first leg of which Turkish President Abdullah Gul watched last year in Yerevan, unless the border has reopened or there are clear signs it is about to open.

Turkey closed the frontier in 1993 in solidarity with Muslim ally Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are former Soviet republics.

"Negotiations with Turkey and the reached agreement do not contain any kind of preconditions concerning the peaceful regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or any problem in relation to this," Sarksyan said in a speech to the Armenian diplomatic corps, according to the president's office.

The normalization of ties with Armenia, strongly backed by the United States as a step to improve security in the region, risks angering Azerbaijan, an energy supplier to the West and a key source of gas supplies for the planned Nabucco pipeline.

"The opening of the Turkish-Armenian border before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict contradicts the national interests of Azerbaijan," said Elkhan Polukhov, spokesman for the Azeri Foreign Ministry.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- a rivalry arising from the Soviet Union's collapse -- remains unresolved, with Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces still facing off over a tense front line 15 years after agreeing a ceasefire.

Davutoglu spoke on the telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday regarding normalizing ties with Armenia as well as Ankara's desire to speed up a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish diplomats said.

(Additional reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan, Daren Butler in Istanbul and Lada Yevgrashina in Baku) (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; editing by Ralph Boulton)