The National, United Arab Emirates
Sept 8 2008

Success of football diplomacy has a catch

Thomas Seibert, Foreign Correspondent

Last Updated: September 07. 2008 8:56PM UAE / GMT ISTANBUL // The
historic visit by Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, to Armenia has
opened the door for a process of reconciliation between the two
neighbours, a move that could dramatically improve Turkey’s image in
the European Union, but Mr Gul has failed to convince critics at home
who argue that Ankara has made too many concessions to Yerevan.

`A psychological wall has been demolished,’ Mr Gul said of his short
trip to Yerevan, the first by a Turkish president. `I hope that this
visit will be a new start for a solution of the problems between the
two countries.’ Mr Gul met his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan,
for talks, and the two presidents watched a World Cup qualifying match
between the football teams of their countries, which the Turkey won
2-0.

`We will solve these problems and not leave them to the next
generation,’ Mr Sarksyan said. There was a `political will to decide
the questions between our countries’.

Given that Turkish-Armenian relations are overshadowed by the death of
hundreds of thousands Anatolian-Armenians during the final years of
the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, which Armenia says
constituted a genocide, Mr Gul’s trip was hailed as a step of historic
proportions in Turkey and abroad.

`Our children will talk about this gesture,’ wrote commentator Ferai
Tinc in Hurriyet, a daily newspaper. `Football diplomacy has been
successful,’ the Milliyet newspaper said. In a poll made public
shortly before Mr Gul went to Yerevan on Saturday, two out of three
Turks said they supported the initiative.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, which is home to a strong
Armenian minority and holds the rotating presidency of the European
Union, also praised Mr Gul. `While the region is in the midst of a
serious crisis, [the visit] is a courageous and historic gesture for
Turkish-Armenian relations,’ Mr Sarkozy said in a statement.

Although reconciliation with Armenia is not part of the EU conditions
for Turkey’s membership, French politicians in particular have called
on Ankara several times to mend its ties with Armenia.

The Turkish president was greeted by sporadic demonstrations in
Yerevan during his six-hour visit, with some protesters carrying signs
that read `Recognise the genocide’. Several thousand policemen were on
duty, and Mr Gul and Mr Sarkisian watched the match from behind a pane
of bulletproof glass. Yerevan says the Ottoman government decided to
wipe out the Armenian minority in 1915; Turkey does not deny that many
innocent people died, but insists that the deaths were the result of
unrest and harsh wartime conditions.

The row over the Armenian massacres is not the only issue that has
kept Turkey and Armenia apart. Some politicians in Ankara accuse
Armenia of claiming Turkish territory, saying Yerevan has not
officially recognised the border between the two countries. Turkey
closed the border in 1993 in support for Azerbaijan during the
fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian region in
Azerbaijan. The two countries have no diplomatic relations.

The `football diplomacy’ has created a new opening for direct
talks. `I stressed in my contacts [in Yerevan] that there are no
problems that cannot be solved by dialogue,’ Mr Gul said after he
returned to Ankara late Saturday. He invited Mr Sarksyan for the
return match between the two football teams in Turkey, which will take
place in October next year. The two presidents will also meet on the
fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York this month, Turkish
media reported. Mr Gul and Mr Sarksyan agreed that the two countries’
foreign ministers should put into place a mechanism of consultation,
according to the reports. High-level contacts like that would have
been thought impossible only a short time ago.

According to Mr Gul, Armenia signalled its support for the Turkish
idea for a `Caucasus Platform’, a regional grouping planned as a forum
for conflict prevention and resolution. The Turkish government tabled
the initiative after the fighting between Georgia and Russia in South
Ossetia in early August.

In Yerevan, the two presidents avoided any discussion about the thorny
issue of the massacres. `They neither mentioned nor referred to the
so-called genocide,’ Mr Gul said. Hurriyet reported that the two
countries agreed to speed up the establishment of a joint committee of
historians that would deal with the events of 1915. A joint committee
dealing with economic questions was also planned, the newspaper
reported. Almost a decade ago, Turkey began a similar process of
rapprochement with Greece, another traditional neighbourhood
foe. Since then, co-operation has increased in a number of fields,
although difficult questions like the exact delineation of their
maritime border in the Aegean remain unresolved.

But while many commentators had only good things to say about Mr Gul’s
trip, some remained unconvinced. In scathing remarks aimed at the
president, the opposition leader, Deniz Baykal, suggested that Mr Gul
may as well lay a wreath at a memorial commemorating the Armenian
genocide in Yerevan. He also reminded Mr Gul that he himself had been
very critical of Armenia as a parliamentary deputy in 1993.

`What has changed since then?’ Mr Baykal asked, referring to Armenia’s
positions concerning the border, the genocide issue or
Nagorno-Karabakh. `Nothing has changed.’

The presidential trip `will earn Turkey important points on its road
to the EU’, wrote Yildiz Devici Bozkus, an analyst at the Centre for
Eurasian Strategic Studies, a think tank in Ankara. But Turkey would
be giving Armenia the chance to be at the table of the Caucasus
Platform without Yerevan having to give up any of its own positions in
the various disputes with Turkey, she added.

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