Aysor, Armenia
Oct 31 2009

Bursa: The `Non moral’ victory of the Aysor.am reporter Before the
football match

We arrived to Bursa by ship. During the 2 hour ship trip the only
subject of discussion was the football match. We were trying to guess
the score of the Turkey ` Armenia match.

On reaching the stadium after Ataturk we saw the young fans gathered
there who met the journalists with shouting.
The only amazing thing was that along the way there were Turkish flags
for sale, as for the Armenian flags as we were told by one of the
sellers, they were sold long time ago. By the way the price of the
Turkish flags was 1.5 USD dollars, while the Armenian flags were 20
USD dollars.

During the match:

The security staff warmly received the Armenian delegation of the
journalists. Then the group was met also by the young people going to
tribunes, they were even making jokes that like the Armenian football
especially in the Turkish field.

The Armenian and Turkish journalists were sitting next to each other.
We had managed to get acquainted with some of them even before coming
to the stadium; there were also journalists from Germany, England and
Switzerland.

There were Turkish flags everywhere, and 6 Azerbaijani flags as I
counted. There were only 96 Armenian fans in the stadium. They had
arrived from Istanbul and had got the invitation tickets only a few
days ago and had only one Armenian flag. There were Fetie Cetin, the
prosecutor of the case of Hrant Dink, her friends and some relatives
of her.

The game started on time, and we all took out our 3 hidden flags. Form
the very first minutes the Turkish journalists and the fans in the
neighborhood started to protest, they had already forgotten that they
had come here to watch the game. It went so far that the security
officer and the representative of `FIFA’ came to speak with us.

During that time the Turkish journalists were flattering the Turkish
flags and when we were showing it to the security officer the
journalists were passing the flags to the fans.

We asked the representative of `FIFA’ to present a written document
proving that we didn’t have the right to care the Armenian flags, and
he, noticing that we are more stubborn than the law, said: `I put my
arms down’ and left us with the Turkish security officer.

The latter tried to take the flag for several times but met more
defenses. We were flattering the flag higher as he was coming closer
and closer. And as better we were flattering the flags as better the
Turks were throwing sunflower seeds on us.
After the first match, seeing that some more security officers
approach I hid the flag under my coat and went to the rest room. After
staying for 15 minutes in the rest room and supposing that the second
half of the match had already started and everybody’s attention will
be concentrated on the game, I entered the stadium. It turned out that
not everyone was interested with the Turkish ` Armenian game.

>From the very first moment the security officer was trying to pursue
me not to flatter the flag but simply to put it on the bench. To my
question how can I put the flag of my country on the bench and sit
calmly he said if I didn’t do that I would have problems after the
match with the Turkish fans and our National Football Federation will
be fined.

I didn’t think about what will happen after the match and didn’t think
at all about the Armenian Football Federation.
At last, seeing that the most of the journalists have put the flags on
the benches I asked him to take me to a place from were I will be able
to flatter my flag without problems, otherwise I will not undergo
their rules.

The Security officer offered me to join the fans group that has
arrived from Istanbul and to the question whether it is dangerous or
not to join those fans he answered frankly: `You can wait for
everything from the Turkish fans, but I will not allow anyone to harm
you.’

Turkish security officer agreed to provide my security till the end of
the game. I did not trust him, but he saved me from the first
beatings. Turkish football funs began to throw empty bottles on me and
the officer covered me with his body.

The whistles and bottles thrown didn’t bother me during the rest time
of the match. My officer didn’t leave me even for one minute. Noticing
that my flag is to large and I have some problems to flatter it alone
he joined me. His compatriots began to curse him for it.

When it was a minute to the end of the game, the officer asked me to
join the other journalists, I agreed.

After the match:

When we met with the head of the Armenian Football Federation Ruben
Hayrapetyan he said, that he was informed about one of the Armenian
journalists, who had contradicted with a Turkish officer.

We asked him whether that journalist could serve a reason for the
Federation being fined.

`It does not matter, you be fans, and it’s ok with the Federation
being fined. The presence of at least one Armenian person with
Armenian flag in the tribune is very important.’

P.S. Bursa will stay in my memory for a long time. I loved that small
and calm town, I loved flattering an Armenian flag there and I was
proud for being Armenian¦

31.10.2009, 16:17
P.Hovhannisyan
Aysor.am

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress