ARMENIA INVITES TURKISH PRESIDENT IN FOOTBALL DIPLOMACY

Agence France Presse — English
July 5, 2008 Saturday 10:32 AM GMT

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has invited Turkish President
Abdullah Gul to watch a football match in Yerevan, a spokesman said
Saturday, despite a diplomatic freeze between the two countries.

"The president has invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul Enhanced
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News, Most Recent 60 Days to visit Armenia on September 6 to watch the
World Cup qualifying match between Armenia and Turkey," Sarkisian’s
spokesman, Samvel Farmanyan, told AFP.

There are currently no diplomatic ties between Turkey and Armenia
because of disputes over the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
in the early 20th century and over Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan,
Armenia’s arch-foe.

Backed by Armenia, ethnic-Armenian forces took control of the
Azerbaijani province of Nagorny Karabakh during a war in the early
1990s that killed thousands and forced nearly a million people on
both sides to flee their homes.

There have been recent calls to reopen the border between ex-Soviet
Armenia and Turkey to help growing trade ties between the two, which
are currently conducted through third countries such as Georgia.