Just a day before eyes turn to Washington to see if President Barack Obama will use the word “genocide” in a traditional presidential statement released every April 24, Turkey announced that it had reached an agreement with Armenia on a roadmap for normalizing relations, drawing praise from the United States and deepening concerns in Azerbaijan.

Turkey and Armenia have been holding closed-door talks for more than a year on ways to restore diplomatic relations and open their mutual border, closed by Turkey in 1993 in protest of the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory during a war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The dispute is further complicated by Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire at the time of World War I, a charge denied by Turkey. US President Obama, who pledged to recognize the genocide claims during his election campaign, is now under pressure to use the g-word in his April 24 statement but earlier signaled he won't because he did not want to harm the reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia. “The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process, and they have agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said late on Wednesday. The statement also confirmed that Switzerland, which has been hosting the closed-door talks, was acting as mediator in the process. Armenians across the world hold commemorative services to remember what they say was the beginning of a systematic genocide campaign. US presidents traditionally release commemorative statements, but they have avoided using the word genocide. Obama avoided the word when he addressed Turkish lawmakers during a visit to Turkey earlier this month. But he said, in response to a question, that he had not changed his views on the question. The accord was announced hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised what she described as bold reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia. Following the statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said the United States welcomed the agreement. "It has long been and remains the position of the United States that normalization should take place without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe," he said. Wood added that the US would work "with both governments in support of normalization, and thus promote peace, security and stability in the whole region." "We urge Armenia and Turkey to proceed according to the agreed framework and roadmap," Wood said in a statement.But Azerbaijan, which fears normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia would mean loss of key leverage against Yerevan in its dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, reacted to the announcement of progress in the Turkey-Armenia talks with concern. "The opening of the Armenian-Turkish border cannot take place without a process to resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said on Thursday. "Opening the border could lead to tensions in the region and would be contradictory to the interests of Azerbaijan."He also said it was "too early" to discuss what steps Azerbaijan might take in retaliation.Azerbaijan, a major natural gas and oil supplier for the West, is Europe's key hope for supplying gas for the proposed Nabucco pipeline that would run through Turkey and reduce Europe's energy dependence on Russia. Diplomats fear Baku could reject European overtures and instead sell the gas from phase two of its Shah Deniz field -- due to come online by 2014 -- to Russia for re-export.Polukhov earlier told Azeri news Web site Day.az that Armenian troops should be withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh "in parallel" with the normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan.Since Armenia is landlocked and its border with Azerbaijan is also closed, the Turkish frontier is of key importance for trade routes to the West. Clinton said in her address to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives that the United States had assured Azerbaijan it would intensify efforts to resolve the dispute. A group of international mediators have been working for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, but no progress has been reported so far in what diplomats describe as a frozen conflict in the Caucasus.A senior Western diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said he did not expect Azerbaijan to renege on its existing energy contracts but added: "But in terms of ongoing negotiations on Shaz Deniz II for example, then there I think the Azeris will have a very different perspective and keep doors open that were not very likely or not very attractive to the Azeris previously."Last month, Azeri state energy firm Socar signed a memorandum with Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom to start talks on Russia buying Azeri gas from 2010 for export to Europe. Reconciliation with Armenia is a difficult step for the Turkish government, which faces criticism from nationalists over the way it handled Turkey's relations with Azerbaijan. Ankara has long said normalization in relations with Armenia depends on Armenia's withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, a change in Yerevan's policy regarding international recognition of genocide claims and its formal recognition of the border. Analysts say Wednesday night's announcement is a sign that Turkey is revising this policy, although Turkish officials have said Turkey wants its talks with Armenia to advance in parallel with negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory controlled by Armenia.Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were slain by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I in what Armenians and several other nations recognize as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey vehemently rejects the allegation.  24 April 2009, FridayTODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES  İSTANBUL