BRUSSELS, WASHINGTON WELCOME GUL’S DECISION TO GO TO YEREVAN

Today’s Zaman
Sept 5 2008
Turkey

Both the European Union, which Ankara aspires to join, and Turkey’s
NATO ally the United States have welcomed President Abdullah Gul’s
decision to respond favorably to Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan’s
invitation to visit Yerevan to watch a match between the national
football teams of the two estranged neighboring countries.

Both Brussels and Washington also expressed expectations of a complete
normalization of bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey, which
have not had diplomatic relations since the early 1990s. Turkey severed
ties with Armenia in protest of Yerevan’s occupation of Azerbaijan’s
Nagorno-Karabakh region, over which Armenia fought Turkey’s ally
Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s.

Gul’s office announced on Wednesday evening that the president will
visit Armenia over the weekend for the soccer match. Armenia and Turkey
will play against each other in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on
Sept. 6 in a qualifying match for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. EU term
president France, in a written statement released yesterday on behalf
of the EU Council, expressed "pleasure" over Sarksyan’s invitation,
while voicing "joy" over Gul’s decision to respond favorably to
his invitation.

"This [historic] visit constitutes a strong and encouraging gesture
for relations between Armenia and Turkey. The EU Council Presidency
hopes and wishes that this extremely symbolic visit will create
the normalization of relations between the two countries," the EU
statement said.

In Washington, Mark Toner, a spokesperson for the Bureau of European
and Eurasian Affairs at the US State Department, told the Anatolia
news agency that Washington has welcomed Gul’s decision.

"We congratulate both of the presidents’ courage to take steps
toward strengthening peace and welfare in the region," Toner was
quoted as saying by Anatolia. "We hope that this historical meeting
will help accelerate the complete normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations," Toner added. Both the US administration and the now
27-member EU have called on Turkey to normalize bilateral relations
with Yerevan. The issue has constantly found a place in regular
progress reports annually released by the European Commission on EU
candidate Turkey. In Damascus, EU term president France’s Nicolas
Sarkozy yesterday expressed pleasure over Gul’s decision to go to
Yerevan, calling the move "very positive."

Sarkozy’s comments on the issue came at a joint press conference
following a summit that brought him together with Syrian President
Bashar Assad, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani for talks on Mideast stability and
peace. The EU statement, meanwhile, also lent support to Turkey’s
initiative for establishing a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation
Platform, calling the initiative "a meaningful contribution to
stability, security and development in the region."