The European Union on Tuesday called on Armenia and Turkey to ratify protocols on bilateral relations without preliminary conditions.

Armenia and Turkey signed protocols on establishing diplomatic relations and on developing bilateral relations last October. They are yet to be approved by their parliaments.

"The European Union supports the process started between Armenia and Turkey and calls on the countries to stay true to this process. The EU urges the countries to ratify and implement the protocols without preliminary conditions," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, told a press conference in Yerevan.

Many political forces in Armenia have denounced the deal as treason, saying Ankara should recognize the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide. Turkey rejects the genocide label.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in mid-February accused Turkey of protracting the ratification of the protocols.

Moratinos, who arrived in Armenia on Tuesday as head of an EU delegation, also said the EU welcomes Sargsyan's move to submit the protocols to parliament, as well as Turkish President Abdullah Gul's statement on the intention to continue dialogue with Armenia.

Moratinos is expected to meet with Sargsyan and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian during his visit.

The Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on Ankara's initiative. Bilateral relations are complicated over the genocide issue as well as by Turkey's support of Azerbaijan's position in the Nagorny Karabakh problem.

Azerbaijan recently renewed threats of military action to retake disputed Nagorny Karabakh over a lack of progress in talks with Armenia.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war in the 1990s between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed enclave inside Azerbaijan with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population. Some 30,000 people died in the conflict, which erupted after the mountainous region declared independence in 1991. Karabakh has been under Armenian control since a Russian-brokered ceasefire in 1994.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday at a joint press conference after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that France and Russia will continue close cooperation in settling the Karabakh conflict.

YEREVAN, March 2 (RIA Novosti)