Armenia and Turkey Agree on Roadmap for Normalization of Ties

Armenia and Turkey have agreed on the general terms for normalizing their relations, the foreign ministries of Armenia and Turkey and the Foreign Affairs Department of Switzerland announced in an April 22 statement. Details of the agreement have not been specified.

According to the document, Yerevan and Ankara, in a recent round of Swiss-mediated talks, made significant progress toward a rapprochement on mutually acceptable terms, Regnum news agency and A1plus news site reported. A roadmap was created that will help the two sides to reconcile their positions on disputed matters, Regnum said citing Armenia's foreign ministry.

The document reportedly makes no mention of the two sides' main stumbling blocks: Armenia's call for recognition of the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide and Turkey's call for Armenia to withdraw its forces from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding territory.