Being an influential state in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia, Turkey is an important ally of U.S., Ukraine’s leading English-language newspaper Kyiv Post reports. NEWS.am posts some extracts of the article, titled “Turkey-Armenia deal could alleviate U.S. headache.”

“For decades, however, relations have been roiled by Armenian-Americans, who have doggedly pursued U.S. recognition of the World War I-era killings of Armenians as Genocide. That may soon change.

A historic deal to resume diplomatic ties and open the border between Turkey and Armenia, expected to be signed Saturday, could alleviate that longtime headache for U.S. diplomats.

Recognizing that objections from Armenians living thousands of miles away have a political impact, Armenian and U.S. officials have been seeking support for the deal by the Armenia diaspora, which has often taken a harder, more nationalist line on relations with Turkey than the Armenian government. Now some major Armenian-American groups have indeed praised the deal amid a rancorous debate within the community. The backing of some influential groups is a welcome development for the Obama administration, which has pushed for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey project at CSIS, a Washington think tank, said the United States has been pivotal in the Swiss-led mediation between the two countries. ‘The U.S. administration and the Turkish government both wish to defuse the tensions associated with annual efforts to get the U.S. to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide and view normalization as the best way of doing so,’ he said,” the article reads.

The daily quotes the Executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America Bryan Ardouny: “For the first time Turkey has publicly committed to normalize relations without preconditions, which the United States has actively supported.”