ARMENIA VS. TURKEY: FOOTBALL! A ROUTE TO PEACE!
By Aram Araratyan
ArmInfo
2009-10-14 12:29:00
ArmInfo. The match that will take place in the Turkish town of Bursa
in a few hours will remain in the memory of people for a long time
irrespective of the final score. This match will become a symbol of
reconciliation between two neighbor states. The Armenia vs. Turkey
qualifying match is expected tonight.
Although this game will bring nothing to the teams (they have already
lost their chance to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup South
Africa), the world community will engage all eyes on the match at
least because the two countries’ leaders Serzh Sargsyan and Abdullah
Gul as well as UEFA President Michel Platini will attend it.
Everything started with football i.e. with the South African town of
Durban where the Draw 2010 FIFA World Cup was held. Sending the Turkish
team to the group with Armenians the FIFA and UEFA presidents could
not even imagine that they made a good beginning of the process that
would become known in the world history as "soccer diplomacy." This
very term will long define reconciliation of the two states having
no relations for a long period of time before.
This process began on September 6 2008 when Turkish President Gul
arrived in Yerevan to watch Armenia vs. Turkey qualifying match at the
invitation of Armenian President Sargsyan. Yet then all the leading
Mass Media in the world called that event historical. The match ended
Armenia 0 : Turkey 2, but the score was not important then.
It was the first step towards rapprochement of the two countries,
but there is a long and uneasy way to pass i.e. many meetings and
contacts at various levels, as well as various statements, discussions,
debates in Mass Media etc. However only the key landmarks will remain
in memory: April 22 – the statement on initiation of the "Road-map";
August 31 – statement on initialed Protocols and finally the "endlessly
long" evening of October 10 in Zurich when ministers Nalbandian
and Davutoghlu finally signed the "Protocol on the establishment
of diplomatic relations" and the "Protocol on the development of
bilateral relations" under close attention of the world community.
Much is still to be done, of course: ratification of the Protocols
by the two countries’ parliaments, their implementation and opening
of the border if they are ratified. However, tonight all this will
give place to the favorite game of millions of people worldwide –
football. The creative English who founded football in the 19th
century could not even imagine that it would become the reason of
conflicts and reconciliation.
It would be impossible not to mention at this point the famous
"football war" of 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras. Football fans
cannot but know the match Argentina-England (World Cup Mexico 1986)
when Maradona made the legendary "Hand of God" goal in the hot and
nervous pitch in Mexico. Four years before that game the two states
fought for the Falkland. It made Argentineans even angrier to have
lost the war then. By that goal Maradona wanted to say that it was
Argentina’s revenge.
Thirty years after the "football war" Armenia and Turkey showed the
opposite example to the world trying to normalize their relations by
means of "football diplomacy". We have nothing to do but hope that
22 people who will enter the green pitch in Bursa tonight at 11:00pm
Yerevan time will vindicate the honor of their flag and that Turkish
fans like those in Yerevan will demonstrate to the world that football
can really connect people and even the most irreconcilable rivals.