Turkey beats Armenia, 2-0, in soccer match

The pressure in the stadium was overwhelming

by Tatul Hakobyan

Published: Friday October 16, 2009

At the Armenia-Turkey soccer match. Melik Baghdasaryan / Photolure

Bursa, Turkey - The Armenia-Turkey return soccer match here was of little interest as a sporting event. Both national teams were already out of the running for the 2010 World Cup. The significance of the match was more emotional.

The teams entered the Bursa field 45 minutes before the start of the game. From that moment, the psychological pressure on the Armenians there - reporters and some fans, but above all soccer players - began in earnest.

For almost three hours, there was endless whistling in the 30,000-seat stadium. During the performance of Mer Hairenik, Turkish soccer fans drowned out the Armenian national anthem. When the Turkish national anthem began, a few Armenian journalists remained seated in protest.

Journalists and fans

A few minutes after the beginning of the match, we took out our few Armenian tricolors, started waving them and yelling "Hayastan, Hayastan."

Guards approached us immediately and instructed us to put away our flags because, under the rules of FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, flags are not allowed in the press area.

Our voices could not be heard in the soccer field, but they were still too much for the fans in the next section. They started whistling at us and making threats.

Before the match, Turkish and Azerbaijani fanatics had thrown rocks at one of the minibuses carrying Armenian journalists.

A single organism

The Turks played a lot better than the Armenians, without question. It seemed like the soccer players and fans were a single organism. The Turkish team was playing under the inspiration of Turkish songs and whistles.
Because of security concerns, no tickets had been sold. Everyone present had been invited, and in this way the Turkish hosts sought to avoid and succeeded in avoiding undesirable incidents.

Security was provided by some 3,000 police officers. It struck me that the purpose of my presence was not to watch and report on a soccer match, but to leave the Bursa stadium unharmed. Especially after they made us put away the tricolors, a few Armenian reporters shed tears.

Although it had been announced that Azerbaijani flags would not be allowed into the stadium, the Azerbaijani flag was among those that could be seen from the area where Presidents Abdullah Gül and Serge Sargsyan were seated.

White doves

Before the game started, a few dozen white doves were released as symbols of peace.

As in Yerevan in September 2008, thus in Bursa today, the Turkish team won 2-0. The Turkish team was competing with only 10 players as of the 32nd minute; at that time one of the players was ejected from the field for rough play.

But by then the Turks had already scored two goals. In the 17th minute Halil Altintop and in the 28th Servet Cetin had scored.

"The pressure of the stadium was terrible," Ruben Hairapetian, the president of Armenia's soccer federation, told the Armenian Reporter. He added that the Armenian team played better in Bursa than it had in Yerevan.

Mr. Hairapetian also said that the president of Armenia had visited with the soccer players before the game and encouraged them.