Turkey and Armenia were set to take an historic step towards reconciliation here on Saturday, by signing pacts to normalise ties after nearly a century of bitterness over their blood-soaked past. Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will sign the two protocols in a ceremony at the University of Zurich at 5.00 pm (1500 GMT), the Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed. Relations between NATO member Turkey and Russian-backed Armenia have been thorny since the World War I massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule. The bridge-building by the two governments after more than a year of discrete Swiss-mediated talks is still hampered by fierce opposition at home, as well as within the influential Armenian community abroad.