Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 6 2008

Opposition fuming over `soccer diplomacy’ with Armenia

Opposition parties have stepped up criticism following an announcement
by President Abdullah Gül that he would go to Armenia on
Saturday to watch a soccer game between the national teams of the two
countries, saying the move is "unacceptable."

"We do want relations with Armenia to improve, but it is unacceptable
that we as a large country have such a submissive stance in the face
of such grave hostility on the part of Armenia," Deniz Baykal,
chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said
in an interview with NTV yesterday. "This is not a serious
policy. This is just another example of the inconsistencies we see in
acts of the government."

Gül announced late on Wednesday that he would pay a one-day
visit to Armenia, a neighbor with which Turkey has had no formal ties
since 1993, at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serzh
Sarksyan, to watch a Saturday World Cup qualifying game between the
national teams of the two countries. A majority of the public, as well
as the United States and the European Union, welcomes the visit, the
first ever by a Turkish president to Armenia.

But opposition parties are unhappy, saying Armenia has not changed any
of its policies that caused the ties to be severed in the first place
and warning that Turkey’s regional ally Azerbaijan will be
offended. Baykal took the criticism to such a level on Thursday as to
suggest that Gül visit a "genocide" monument in Yerevan while
there. "This is what Baykal does all the time, building his policies
on negative elements," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said
in response to the CHP leader.

The genocide claims are at the heart of problems with
Armenia. Armenians claim 1.5 million of their kin were killed in the
Ottoman Empire as part of a systematic genocide campaign, while Turkey
says there were deaths on both sides as Armenians took up arms against
the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Critics say Gül’s visit to Armenia contradicts official policy,
which holds that normalization of ties depends on Armenia withdrawing
its support for the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to win international
recognition of the genocide claims, formal recognition by Armenia of
the current border with Turkey and the withdrawal of Armenian troops
from Azerbaijani territory. Baykal recalled a past speech by
Gül, then a member of the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP), in
Parliament in which he criticized then-Armenian President Levon
Ter-Petrosyan for coming to Turkey to attend a funeral for the late
Turkish President Turgut Ã-zal. He said not much has changed in
Armenia’s policies since then and criticized Gül for going to
Yerevan for "publicity" purposes now.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also opposes the visit, saying it
will be a grave mistake.

A group of supporters of the ultranationalist and secularist Workers’
Party (Ä°P) staged a protest outside the presidency on Friday to
protest Gül’s visit to Yerevan. Demonstrators said the visit
was against Turkey’s national interests and claimed it was taking
place under pressure from the United States.

06 September 2008, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN ANKARA