Turk pres to accept the invitation of Sargsyan to visit Armenia: report

82083.asp?gid=244&sz=68441
Saturday, August 30, 2008

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. (UPDATED)

Armenia however has not yet been informed of Gul’s decision, the report
said, adding that the president is expected to make an official
announcement next week.

Armenia President Serz Sargsyan invited Gul to watch the World Cup
qualifying match between the two country’s national teams on Sept. 6 to
mark "a new symbolic start in the two countries’ relations".

Gul had previously said that Sargsyan’s invitation is an example of
contributions towards solving the problems that exist between the two
countries and that an evaluation of the invitation was underway taking
every possibility into account.

In a gesture of good faith, Armenia offered to lift all visa
requirements and payments for Turkish citizens traveling to the capital
Yerevan for the match, the report also said.

Although Turkey is among the first countries to recognize Armenia when
it declared its independence, there are no diplomatic relations between
two countries as Armenia continues to press the international community
to admit the so-called "genocide" claims, instead of accepting Turkey’s
call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territory due to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue despite U.N.
Security Council resolutions on the issue.

Armenia, with the backing of the Diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of
their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000