InternationalTurkey's Abdullah Gül prepares for unprecedented visit to Armenia
National soccer teams to face off Saturday
Published: Thursday September 04, 2008
Journalists from Turkey at Yerevan's Hrazdan stadium prepare to cover the Armenia-Turkey soccer match. The black tuffa house on the top right is former president Levon Ter-Petrossian's private residence. Photolure
Yerevan - YEREVAN - President Abdullah Gül of Turkey has accepted the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serge Sargsian, and will be in Yerevan today, September 6, for six hours. Following talks, the presidents of Armenia and Turkey will go to the Hrazdan stadium to watch their two national soccer teams play a World Cup 2010 qualifier match, after which Mr. Gül will depart.
Mr. Gül's office issued a statement that read: "A visit around this match can create a new climate of friendship in the region. It's with this in mind that the president has accepted [Mr. Sargsian's] invitation."
A regional agenda
On September 3 Mr. Sargsian received the special envoy of Turkey, Ambassador Unal Cevikoz. The two discussed issues pertaining to Mr. Gül's visit. Mr. Sargsian said that the special envoy's visit was not only a positive event but created an opportunity to speak about the normalization of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional developments. According to the presidential press service, Mr. Sargsian stated that the events unfolding in the Caucasus, with their international repercussions, raise serious issues that require responsibility and presume well-defined obligations.
Mr. Sargsian and Mr. Cevikoz also discussed Turkey's regional initiative, the Caucasus Stability and Partnership Platform. Noting that Turkey's prime minister had taken on a very challenging but important task in promoting the regional platform, Mr. Sargsian said that he supports holding talks and discussing any issue. "Armenia has always welcomed efforts aimed at the enhancement of confidence building, stability, security, and cooperation," Mr. Sargsian said.
In recent days, Mr. Gül had a telephone conversation with President George W. Bush. The main focus of the conversation was Georgia and the situation in the Caucasus in general. "The two leaders also talked about their support for efforts to improve Turkish-Armenian relations and the growing Turkish-Iraqi relationship," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council said on Tuesday. In Ankara, the presidential palace said Mr. Gül had informed Mr. Bush about Ankara's initiative to create a Caucasus Stability and Partnership Platform.
A difficult relationship
Ankara recognized the independence of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia in 1991. Whereas it established diplomatic relations with Tbilisi and Baku, it refused to do so with Yerevan, citing the declaration of independence adopted on August 23, 1990, by Armenia's Supreme Soviet (parliament), Article 12 of which states, "Armenia supports the efforts for the international recognition of the 1915 Genocide perpetrated in Western Armenia by Ottoman Turkey."
The Turkish government officially closed the border with Armenia in 1993, when the armed forces of Karabakh took over Kelbajar, which was outside of the borders of the Soviet-era Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.
Mr. Sargsian's efforts to normalize relations with Turkey is also championed by the opposition Armenian National Congress, led by Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrossian.
"I can only welcome Gül's invitation, especially because it is a convenient opportunity. There are no political intrigues at play, only a sporting event that may provide the conduit to begin melting the ice," Mr. Ter-Petrossian said at a news conference on December 2. "It is strange that no high-ranking Turkish official has ever come to Armenia. I went to Turkey three times as Armenia's president and [former president] Robert Kocharian also went. Armenian presidents have been in Turkey four times, and not one high-ranking Turkish official has ever been to Armenia. This is not a normal phenomenon nor is it normal relations," Mr. Ter-Petrossian added.
Protest planned
"Turkey and Armenia are neighbors and there is no alternative to improving relations between the Armenian and Turkish peoples," Levon Mkrtchian, a member of the Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and a former minister of education, said on Tuesday. "But dialogue can start only in conditions of Turkey's honesty and repentance. That is the guarantee for the security of the republics of Armenia and Karabakh; that is the assurance that the past will not be repeated." The ARF, which is part of Armenia's governing coalition, planned a "civil and law-abiding" protest gathering at the Zvartnots airport on Mr. Gül's arrival, said the party's Hrair Karapetian, a deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the unprecedented visit has the Turkish opposition up in arms. Deniz Baykal, the leader of the Republican People's Party, said "Turkey's true friend was Baku, not Yerevan."
The Turkish press in recent days has been flooded with articles discussing the possibility of Mr. Gül's visit to Armenia and the future of Armenian-Turkish relations.
"The Turkish side (during Gül's visit) will explain to Armenia its plan to restore stability in the Caucasus region and will invite Armenia to join it. Gül will also repeat Turkey's proposal to establish a joint committee composed of independent historians to study the 1915-1917 incidents. Gül's trip represents a key step towards ending almost a century of animosity over the massacre of Armenians under the erstwhile Turkish Ottoman Empire," the Turkish Daily News wrote on September 3.
The daily Sabah quoted Turkish national team coach Fatih Terim as saying, "This is just a football match, not a war." The ultrasecularist daily Cumhuriyet preferred to quote a retired ambassador as saying it is the "wrong timing for a visit."
