/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey and Armenia will sign a landmark deal to establish diplomatic ties next month in Switzerland after a decades-long grudge over a World War I massacre, a Turkish official said Sunday.

"The signing is planned to take place on October 10 in Zurich," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Eduard Nalbandian of Armenia are expected to ink two protocols, the texts of which had been agreed earlier and internationally hailed as a major breakthrough, he said.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, whose country acted as a mediator in reconciliation talks between the two neighbours, is also likely to attend the ceremony, he said.

Long estranged by a bloody history, Turkey and Armenia announced last month the talks had resulted in two protocols calling for the establishment of diplomatic ties and re-opening their border.

They also set a timetable for a series of steps to improve ties.

A Swiss foreign ministry official said the signing ceremony "will probably take place in Switzerland," while Armenian officials were not available for comment.

The protocols, however, will not take effect immediately.

Both governments will submit the documents to their respective parliaments for ratification, a process expected to take time.

The United States and the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, have both repeatedly urged Ankara to reconcile with Yerevan.

The deal, however, has come under fire from opposition groups in both countries, which accuse their governments of making concessions.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia over Yerevan international campaign to have the World War I massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks recognized as genocide.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed in what was genocide, backed by a number of other countries much to Ankara's ire.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

In 1993, Turkey also closed its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity with close ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan backing of ethnic Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region.