ANKARA, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - The signing of Turkish-Armenian accords should be considered a political event of the century, Turkish political analysts said.
Turkey and Armenia signed on Saturday historic accords restoring diplomatic relations and opening borders between the two countries.
"The signing of the agreements should be considered the major geopolitical event of the 21st century," Huseyin Bagci, Vice President of the European Security Academy, told RIA Novosti.
President of the Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Analysis Sinan Ogan said Turkish decision to sign the accords is one of its "main foreign policy initiatives" in recent years, which was implemented "under pressure and support from abroad."
He said the number of international representatives present at the singing ceremony highlighted importance of the agreements.
The documents were signed in Zurich by the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for Muslim ally Azerbaijan, following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two ex-Soviet republics. Turkey has also demanded that Yerevan drop its campaign to have the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 internationally recognized as genocide.
Armenia and Turkey agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations under Swiss mediation this April. The draft pact between the countries has been backed by the United States and European Union.
Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, has been a source of conflict between the former Soviet republics since the late 1980s. The province has its own government and is de facto independent.
During his recent international visit, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met with representatives of Armenian diasporas in different countries, and many of them expressed their opposition to the signing of a Turkish-Armenian agreement.
