Aljazeera.net, Qatar
Sept 6 2008

Armenians protest Gul visit

Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, has been greeted by protests
after arriving in Armenia to attend a football match in an attempt to
improve relations between the two countries.

Gul’s arrival on Saturday in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, marked the
first visit to the country by a Turkish head of state since Armenian
independence in 1991.

The two countries have long argued over Armenia’s attempt to have
recognised as genocide a massacre of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War.

Hundreds of Armenians lined the route of Gul’s motorcade to protest
against Ankara’s refusal to consider the 1915-1917 atrocities as
crimes against humanity.

Bardasar Akhpar, a demonstrator, said: "We are here because we want to
tell the entire world that we do not forget the genocide of 1915.

"We will not welcome Gul nor any other Turk until they have recognised
the genocide."

Breakthrough ‘unlikely’

Gul was taken to meet Serzh Sakisian, the Armenian president, after
being invited by him to attend a world Cup football qualifier between
Armenia and Turkey at Yerevan’s Hrazdan stadium.

The invitation was extended despite the fact the two countries do not
share diplomatic relations.

On meeting Sarkisian, Gul offered the Armenian leader the opportunity
to watch a return football match between the two countries in Turkey
next month.

"I hope that this visit will create the possiblity to improve
bilateral relations," said Gul at a joint press conference with
Sarkisian in Yerevan.

Sarkisian said the visit there is a "political will to decide the
questions between our countries, so that these problems are not passed
on to the next generation".

Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered
by Ottoman Turks as their empire fell apart at the height of the First
World War.

Yerevan’s claim has won support from several other countries.

Turkey rejects the accusation and says that 300,000-500,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife after Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Yerevan, said Armenians
appear to be holding out for improved relations with their country’s
westward neighbour.

"From the people that we have spoken to on the streets of Yerevan, I
would say that the majority are longing for better relations with
Turkey, while being very much concerned that their government do not
give away too many concessions to Ankara," he said.

"They do not want to let go of the hope that one day the world will
recognise what happened almost a hundred years ago as a genocide.

"They also want to see their economy improve through better relations
with Turkey and other countries in the region."

‘Lifting barriers’

Ali Babacan, Turkey’s foreign minister, said diplomatic ties between
Ankara and Yerevan would be discussed between during talks between Gul
and Sarkisian but he a major breakthrough was unlikely.

"I do not think we should raise expectations that high ¦ But on the
other hand, when we open the doors for dialogue, that means we are
ready to talk about the problems," Babacan said.

"It is my wish that this match will help lift the barriers dividing
two people who share a common history and will contribute to regional
friendship and peace," Gul said ahead of his visit.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia since the
former Soviet republic gained independence.

Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia
over Nagorny Karabakh, a secessionist Armenian-majority region in
Azerbaijan.

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