Agence France Presse
April 10, 2009 Friday 4:50 PM GMT

Armenian leader hopes Turkish border will reopen soon

YEREVAN, April 10 2009

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian Friday said he hoped the border
with traditional foe Turkey, closed for over a decade, would reopen
before an October football match between their national teams.

"The ball is on Turkey’s side and under the laws of football the ball
cannot stay there indefinitely," Sarkisian said a press conference
marking his first year in office.

"I think that for the next football match between Turkey and Armenia I
will be going to Turkey through an open border, or maybe even before
then," he said.

Long-fraught relations between Armenia and Turkey have been undergoing
a thaw since Turkish President Abdullah Gul attended a football match
in the Armenian capital Yerevan last year, becoming the first Turkish
leader to visit the neighbouring country.

Gul invited Sarkisian to attend the rematch in Turkey in October.

Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic ties and their border has
been closed amid deep differences over World War I massacres of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia and a number of other countries have called the killings a
genocide, but Turkey rejects the label and disputes the number of
dead.

"We are for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Turkey
without preconditions," Sarkisian said. "We do not set the question of
the recognition of the Armenian genocide as a precondition and we
expect that Turkey also will not raise the issue as a precondition."

During a visit to Turkey this week, US President Barack Obama urged
Turkey and Armenia to "move forward" in talks to establish diplomatic
ties and open their shared border.

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