TURKISH, ARMENIAN LEADERS HOLD TALKS AHEAD OF FOOTBALL MATCH

RIA Vovosti
October 14, 2009
ANKARA

ANKARA, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – The presidents of Armenia and
Turkey held talks on Wednesday before attending a World Cup qualifier
between their national football teams, in a show of support for a
deal to restore ties and reopen the border.

Armenia and Turkey signed historic accords on Saturday on restoring
diplomatic relations and opening borders. The documents have yet to
be ratified by the parliaments amid continued fierce opposition from
nationalist parties in both countries.

Welcoming President Serzh Sargsyan, Turkish leader Abdullah Gul said
his arrival was an important event, Turkey’s NTV channel said. "We
are not writing history, we are making it," Gul said.

Their 40-minute meeting took place at a hotel in Bursa, and was
attended by the foreign ministers.

Armenian nationalist groups have criticized the accords for failure to
take into account the Turkish genocide against Armenians in WWI. Turkey
has demanded that Armenia drop its campaign to have the killings
of thousands of Armenians internationally recognized as genocide,
saying many Turks were also killed in the war.

Nagorny Karabakh, the disputed Armenian-populated region in Azerbaijan,
has also been a stumbling block in efforts to rebuild ties.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for
Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara,
following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh between the two
republics.

Armenia and Turkey agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations
under Swiss mediation this April.

Gul visited Armenia’s capital Yerevan last year for the first leg of
what has been called "soccer diplomacy."