Turkey/Armenia

Football diplomacy bears fruit

Article published on the 2008-09-07 Latest update 2008-09-08 05:34 TU

Historic Turkey vs. Armenia World Cup 2010 qualifier in Yerevan, September 2008
Photo: REUTERS

Armenia and Turkey promise to overcome decades of hostility over the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces in the early 20th century. The breakthrough came after the Turkish President Abduallah Gul visited Armenia to watch an international football match between the two countries.

Abdullah Gul on Saturday became the first Turkish president to visit Armenia, a country which declared independence from the former Soviet Union in 1997.

His visit was prompted by Armenia and Turkey playing a football World Cup qualifier in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Gul met his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian and the two men agreed that there was "political will" to improve relations.

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy described the visit as "courageous and historic".

Turkey has refused to recognise the First World War massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Army as a genocide. Up to one-and-a-half million Armenians are believed to have been killed.

Turkey rejects the word "genocide" and says that just as many Turks as Armenians - up to 500,000 - died in civil strife when Armenia sided with invading Soviet troops and sought independence in eastern Anatolia.

It seems now that channels for discussion are open. Correspondent Nicole Pope told RFI that Gul's visit could also serve to increase Turkey's weight in the region.

"Turkey certainly is trying to prevent things in the Caucuses deteriorating any further, so Turkey's trying to talk both to Russia and to Georgia... to promote some regional pact which would be boosted if it could bring Armenia on board," she said.

 

It seems that Gul has managed to do that as he said he had won the support of Yerevan for a new regional grouping in the Caucasus. 

Landlocked Armenia could also derive enormous benefits from the opening of the border with Turkey, as well as the restoration of a major rail link.

With the normal route via Georgia taken by pipelines shipping oil and gas from the Caspian Sea looking vulnerable after the Russian invasion, Armenia could be an attractive alternative. 

In the football, Turkey won 2-0, and Gul invited Sarkisian to a return fixture in Turkey next year.