MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - The signing of a Turkish-Armenian accord was postponed on Saturday amid speculation that the parties had failed to agree over the wording of final statements.
According to NTV, a Turkish nationwide television news channel, the signing was postponed "indefinitely."
The agreement was to have restored diplomatic ties and reopened the borders between the two countries.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton abruptly returned to her hotel just before the signing ceremony.
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.
