ZURICH, Oct10 (AFP) A landmark move by Turkey and Armenia to sign bilateral deals aimed at normalising their ties after almost a century of bitterness was delayed Saturday amid a “last minute hitch” with the Armenians.
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| A pen due to be used for a signing ceremony is seen at the University in Zurich. AFP |
Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu had been due to sign the two protocols in a ceremony at the University in Zurich early this evening.
But US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters that the ceremony was delayed after “a last minute hitch” with the Armenians, touching off frenetic scenes in the northeastern Swiss city.
Over an hour-and-a-half after the scheduled ceremony, the Armenian foreign minister and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had still not arrived at the University where the signing is due to take place.
Together with EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Clinton was aiming to provide a public show of support for the Turkish-Armenian deal.
Swiss officials said Solana, Lavrov, Kouchner, Davutoglu, and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, representing the mediators, have all arrived at the university.
An AFP reporter said a convoy with Clinton had turned around while travelling there from a luxury hotel where she had earlier held bilateral talks with the Turkish and Armenian ministers.
US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Phil Gordon was meeting Nalbandian in a hotel to try to deal with Armenian concerns about some of the statements to be made during the ceremony, officials said.
Gordon was also talking to the Turkish delegation by phone, they added, while Clinton consulted her diplomats in a limousine parked outside the hotel.
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