GUL IN YEREVAN: HALF OF THE ROAD
Cengiz Candar

Turkish Daily News
Sept 9 2008

This one-day trip to Armenia should produce some solid results so
as to be termed as a ‘historic’ one. That means establishment of
diplomatic ties and opening borders

Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbantian invited us to lunch. At
his Foreign Ministry office in the capital Yerevan’s Republic
Square, we are having lunch and talking about the consequences of
Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s "historic visit" to the Armenian
capital. Arsen Avakian, the translator, is helping us, Hasan Cemal,
Ali Bayramoglu, Mustafa Karaalioglu and I, at the table. Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balaian and Armenian representative
of the KEÄ°B in Istanbul are also around the table.In order to stress
the remarkable progress in bilateral relations and normalization,
Nalbatian repeated a few times that both presidents were willing for
this meeting; he and his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan will take
the flag from here on.

"We had a very historic day yesterday," he started to talk, and, "The
first step is the half-way. Presidents have left the half behind. Then,
they directed ministers to complete the rest," he said somewhere in
his speech. The next stop is to establish diplomatic ties between
Armenia and Turkey and to open the border gate. These two are like
twin brothers; without one the other does not exist.

Not a rematch:

We witnessed how both parties are serious in this. The Turkey-Armenia
football match for the World Cup qualifiers ended with the victory
of Turkey, 2-0. After the game, we went upstairs to attend a cocktail
party for Gul and the Turkish delegation. Gul and Armenian President
Serge Sarkisian suddenly appeared in front of us. Gul introduced us
to Sarkisian. The Armenian leader said the score is not important
for him. It was just a tool for a "close-up". His mood was like
spring atmosphere. Sarkisian said that he will pay a visit to
Turkey on Oct. 14, without forgetting to add "I am not coming for
a rematch."Nalbatian said during the lunch that Sarkasian’s visit
would be of historic importance as well. Both foreign ministers have
promptly set out for works to be done, steps to be taken and to walk
out the rest by Oct. 14.At the end of the cocktail, Gul left the
Hrazdan stadium for a return home. Sarkisian’s chief adviser took
us to our hotel in the city. In the car, he said that the presidents
reached an agreement in principal and the ministers will start working
for realization of the agreement and for providing logistics along
the way. After arriving at the hotel we met at the café and talked
about this historic day and the match. At 2:45 a.m., Babacan and his
entourage left their hotel right across the street.Nalbatian told
us about the rest of the evening. "After the game, I talked with
Babacan about 2.5 hours. Two weeks from now, we will meet in New York
again. From now on, there will not be any stop between us. To date,
we have had so many stops and we waited for so long at every stop but
will not be any stops from now on. In the days to come, we will talk
something solid. This is Armenia’s intention. And we have seen that the
Turkish side also has that intention. There is not any country today
having diplomatic relations yet not having any border gates open."

The spring atmosphere:

It is possible to see something solid in Turkey-Armenia rapprochement
with his following words, "We also talked about the Caucasus Stability
and Cooperation Platform that Turkey suggested. Armenia endorses it
100 percent and sees its significance."Everyone wants to be prudent
and do not want to make any solid commitment yet. But considering the
atmosphere in Yerevan, if we hear that diplomatic ties are established
between Armenia and Turkey and borders are opened by Oct. 14, this
will not be any surprise to us. Still, we approach prudently and say,
"We should first see the diplomatic ties established and borders
opened."We are able to take the pulse in Armenia because we arrived
in the capital before Gul and left after him. So I think the silent
protests during Gul’s travel from the airport to the city, the Tashnak
banners that were opened and shut immediately and a few swishes here
and there were negligible. None can cast shadow over this spring
atmosphere between Turkey and Armenia.

A Tashnak official trying to stress that they have nothing against
Gul’s visit said jokingly," If we hadn’t done that much, we should
have closed the Tasnak party."

As I said before, a "first" by Gul this one-day trip to Armenia should
produce some solid results so as to be termed as a "historic" one. And
that means establishment of diplomatic ties and opening border gates.

Nalbatian said, "We are half of the way." Progress the rest of the
way has begun with optimism.

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