TICKETS FOR ARMENIA – TURKEY GAME WERE DISTRIBUTED TO MAINLY SOLDIERS, POLICE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.10.2009 21:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The football match between Turkey and Armenia was
definitely a historic event but for all the non-football reasons.

The 2010 World Cup qualifying group game means little for both teams,
who both lost their hopes to qualify for the tournament in South
Africa, but the match will still be remembered as a perfectly timed
affair along the countries’ path to normalization.

This political background gave the football match another
edge. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Bursa on Wednesday
afternoon to pay his first visit to Turkey. Last year, Turkish
President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan for the two teams’ first game.

A controversial aspect of the game is that some parties opposing to
the normalization process will use it to voice their discontentment
and are expected to wave Azerbaijani flags during the game. Turkish
Football Federation Chairman Mahmut Ozgener recalled a FIFA ruling
that bans political messages during football games but said the final
call will be with the Bursa Governorship.

On Tuesday, Bursa Gov. Å~^ahabettin Harput declared: "Using Azerbaijani
flags or anything to try to take this game and turn it into a political
event will not be allowed." But there were still people selling
Azerbaijani flags, and some police officers said they would allow
Azerbaijani flags in since they were not given directives otherwise.

But for most football fans in Bursa, the game is not about protesting
or hailing the Turkish-Armenian normalization. Frankly, they may be
the only ones seeing this as nothing but a football game.

As for how the city built up to the game, it can be easily said that
the people in green jerseys outnumbered the ones in red. Most of the
fans made it to the stadium with their green and white shirts of local
team Bursaspor instead of Turkish national outfit jerseys. Of course,
they were the lucky minority that could find a ticket f ause they
were sold out: They were not sold at all.

The tickets for game at the 17,000-capacity Bursa Ataturk Stadium
were reportedly distributed to mainly soldiers, police officers and
students to minimize the risk of trouble in the game. The ticket
scheme was not confirmed by officials, but it was undeniable that
with only hours left before kick off, most fans in Bursa still did
not have a clue where the tickets were, hurriyetdailynews.com reported.