Developing Armenia-Turkey relations through football

HULIQ (press release), NC
Aug 30 2008
President Of Turkey Gul To Visit Armenia

According to the English version of Hurriyet the president of Turkey Abdullah Gul has accepted the invitation of the president of Armenia Serz Sargsyan to visit Armenia and to watch the football match between the national teams of Armenia and Turkey together.

Hurriyet writes "Turkish President Abdullah Gul has accepted an invitation from his Armenian counterpart to watch the World Cup qualifier between the Turkish-Armenian national teams in Yerevan as the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the visit would contribute to renewed relations between the two countries, Vatan daily reported on Saturday."

Vatan Daily has reported the news here, but it's in Turkish.

According to the newspaper Armenia, has not yet been officially informed about Gul's decision to travel to Armenia, but will be invormed officially next week.

It's very interesting that yesterday the foreign minister of Azerbaijan Mr. Elmar Mamediarov was in Turkey meeting the foreign minister Babacan and said that Azerbaijan is basically cool to Turkish president's visit to Armenia. Mamediarov also added that it's up to the Turkish president to accept the invitation or to deny it.

Months ago the president of Armenia as a good gesture invited the president of Turkey together to watch the world qualifier football match between the two national teams that will meet first time in history. This would also be a good opportunity for them to discuss the bilateral relations and bring the positions of the two countries closer through dialogue.

Yesterday Today's Zaman in an article "Reluctant Baku says Armenia visit decision up to Turkey" reported that there are mixed reactions about the Turkish visit to Armenian in Azerbaijan, but it was very interesting to read one of the reactions according to which the president of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliev should go to Armenia to join to talks and to watch the match.

""Gül should not go there because there will be provocation and chaos if he goes. No one will be welcoming if Gül agrees to visit," said Akif Rustemov, a teacher, to Cihan news agency. He softened his opposition when asked whether Gül and Sarksyan should discuss the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict. "If this is the case, then he should go. In fact, our president, Ilham Aliyev, should also join. Foreign mediators have been trying to find a solution for 17 years, but nothing happens. We have to solve this ourselves."

Woudn't it be nice if the three presidents together just watch a soccer match with one another and dialogue about the future of their countries.

Agence France Presse -- English
August 29, 2008 Friday 3:46 PM GMT
Football: Turks without Hamit Altintop and Nihat
ISTANBUL, Aug 29 2008

Turkish coach Fatih Terim on Friday unveiled a 28-man pre-squad forGroup 5 World Cup qualifiers against Armenia and Belgium.

The Turks, who lost the semi-finals of Euro 2008 to Germany 3-2, will be without Bayern Munich midfielder Hamit Altintop and striker Nihat Kahveci of Villarreal as both are injured.

The Turks meet Armenia on September 6 at Yerevan and then host Belgium four days later in Istanbul. Group 5 also contains European champions Spain, Estonia and Bosnia.

Goalkeepers

Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Serdar Kulbilge (Kocaelispor), Tolga Zengin (Trabzonspor)

Defenders

Gokhan Gonul, Ugur Boral (Fenerbahce), Servet Cetin, Hakan Kadir Balta (Galatasaray), Gökhan Zan (Besiktas), Ibrahim Kas (Getafe/ESP), UgurKavuk (Antalyaspor), Mehmet Polat (Gaziantepspor), Caglar Birinci (Denizlispor)

Midfielders

Kazim Kazim, Emre Belozoglu (Fenerbahce), Mehmet Topal, Ayhan Akman, Arda Turan (Galatasaray), Serdar Ozkan (Besiktas), Selcuk Inan, Mehmet Topuz (Trabzonspor), Mehmet Aurelio (Real Betis/ESP), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan/RUS), Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough/ENG), Nuri Sahin (Borussia Dortmund/GER)

Strikers

Gokhan Unal (Trabzonspor), Halil Altintop (Schalke 04/GER), Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce), Mevlut Erdinc (Sochaux/FRA)

ARMENIA-TURKEY
ARMEN TSATOURYAN
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
30 Aug 2008
Armenia

Towards New Solutions

The discussions that have started in Turkey after President Serge Sargsyan's interview to the Turkish `Radical' newspaper testify to the fact that Turkey has recently started to demonstrate an increased interest in Armenia.

The Turkish Mass Media conduct thorough discussions over President Abdullah Gyul's visit to Armenia for watching the Armenia-Turkey football match to be organized on September the 6th, but the official circles of the country continue announcing that they haven't made a final decision yet.

The reason is that the new situation in the Armenian-Turkish relations has some complex processes underlying behind. It is actually the `mirror' of the new geopolitical realities developing in the South Caucasus.

The first and perhaps the most important reality is Russia's active and biased participation in the regulation of the century-old Armenian-Turkish conflict.

And the second reality which makes the task of accelerating the Armenian-Turkish dialogue an urgent issue is the international crisis `in and around Georgia'.

The ruling elite of Turkey have started to realize that it is no longer possible to implement their programs in the South Caucasus while continuing to pursue their traditional policy of isolating Armenia.

Therefore, when is seems on the one hand that the political-military situation in the region is favorable for our county and on the other hand Armenia faces the threat of being subjected to a total blockade, it becomes obvious that we may find a breakthrough in the communication blockade by way of opening the Kars-Gyumri railroad.

But because the process of unknotting the Armenian-Turkish entangled string is related to a lot of difficulties, we can't, for the time being, speak about bringing the parties' viewpoints with regard to strategic issues closer. All we can do at present is to discuss the possibilities of opening the Armenian-Turkish `railway corridor' and initiating a sincere dialogue with the help of Russia, the interested party.

Serge Sargsyan's invitation addressed to his Turkish counterpart and the subsequent discussions initiated by that country, as well as the recent rumors on the probability of constructing the Armenian `branching' of the Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline can be accounted for by this. In such conditions, the presence of the Turkish President at the September 6 football match may become the `prelude' of the whole process.

In his recent interview, S. Sargsyan expressed belief that `all the measures will be taken to receive President Gyul in Yerevan in an appropriate manner.'

However, right after receiving relevant clarification on the `urgent Atopic', the correspondent of `Radical' immediately passed on to the traditional and strictly painful agenda of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Through the questions asked to the RA President, he tried to clarify Armenia's official attitudes towards the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the probability of presenting territorial claims to Turkey and other issues.

The answers Serge Sargsyan gave to the Turkish correspondent left no room for speculating the `package of preconditions' of the Turkish side.

In particular, the President gave the following answer to the question concerning the mutual recognition of the borders, `Armenia is for the UN Charter and a number of other international treaties, and it respects its international commitments.' And in response to the question concerning the territorial claims, the President said, `I don't remember any Armenian official expressing an opinion about territorial claims.'

By saying that, Serge Sargsyan made it clear that our state creates no occasion or pretext that may be viewed as an obstacle or put an end to the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.

The same concerns the correspondent's lame attempt of viewing the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a `precondition of the Armenian party'. The RA President immediately interrupted the correspondent by giving the following clear-cut answer, `All over the world, there's no Armenian not believing the fact of the Genocide. However, the recognition of the Genocide is not a precondition for regulating the relations with Turkey.'

That's to say, the President of Armenia managed to find such formulations for presenting the painful points in the Armenian-Turkish relations that do not allow the Turkish side to make all that a favorable pretext for postponing the solution of the issue of resuming the bilateral relations and opening the borders.

This new `portion' of political messages the Armenian President sent to Turkey through `Radical' newspaper actually `shift the ball to the Turkish half of the field.' Turkish President Abdullah Gyul has now no pretext for rejecting the invitation of visiting Yerevan and excluding our country from regional programs.

It now rests with Russia, our strategic ally, to make its unhesitant intervention in the process of lifting the blockade of Armenia.

PRESS-RELEASE
Armenian Genocide Museum
E-mail: info@genocide-museum.am
August 30, 2008
Armenian Sport in the Ottoman Empire

From September 2 to September 15, a temporary exhibition called `Armenian Sport in the Ottoman Empire' will be on display at the Armenian Genocide Museum. A total of about 70 photos, documents, newspapers and magazines will be on show. They reflect the history of
Armenian sports clubs and football teams in the Ottoman Empire until 1915.

Armenian sports clubs and sportsmen played an important role in the development of sport in the Ottoman Empire. The number of the Armenian sports clubs in the Ottoman Empire reached 100.

In 1911-1914, four Armenian Olympic Games were held in Constantinople. From 1911 to 1914, Shavarsh Qrisyan published the Marmnamarz sports magazine, the first sports periodical in the Ottoman Empire.

For the first time in the history of Turkish Olympic Games, two Armenian sportsmen Vahram Papazian and Mkrtich Mkryan represented Ottoman Turkey in the Fifth International Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912.

In 1915-1920, many Armenian sportsmen became victims of the genocide and most of the Armenian sports clubs were shut down.

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