Thousands of Armenians line the streets of the capital to protest the first-ever visit by a Turkish leader.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAbdullah Gul 88(photo credit: Courtesy)
Thousands of Armenians lined the streets of the capital Saturday to protest the first-ever visit by a Turkish leader and to demand that Turkey acknowledge the World War I massacres of Armenian civilians as genocide.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul was invited to Yerevan to watch the World Cup qualifying soccer match between his nation and Armenia alongside Armenian President Serge Sarkisian. Turkey won the game 2-0 with two second-half goals.
Many hoped the so-called soccer diplomacy would help the two neighbors overcome decades of antagonism rooted in the WWI-era atrocities that began in 1915.
"We have put forward our determination to create the climate to overcome problems that exist between Turkey and Armenia," Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying after the two leaders met.
"We will solve our problems and not leave it to the generations to come," Sarkisian said, according to Anatolia.
Gul saluted Sarkisian's "brave" invitation to watch the game and invited Sarkisian to attend the return game in Istanbul on Oct. 14, 2009.
Gul is the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia since the ex-Soviet nation declared independence in 1991. The two neighbors have no diplomatic ties, and their border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia's occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, a close Turkish ally.
Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th Century. Turkey denies any genocide, saying the death toll has been inflated and the dead were victims of civil war and unrest.
Gul's motorcade from Yerevan airport traveled along streets lined with thousands of people holding placards reading, in English and Armenian, "We want justice," "Turkey admit your guilt," and "1915 never again."
Others held up the names of places in eastern Turkey from where they said their ancestors had been forced to leave under an Ottoman policy of uprooting Armenian communities.
"I am from Van," said one placard, printed in white letters on black like a funeral notice.
Gul and Sarkisian watched the game behind a bulletproof glass at the stadium, which is only 500 meters (yards) from a memorial dedicated to the massacred Armenians.
Armenian fans whistled when the Turkish national anthem was played.
Gul told journalists on the plane back to Ankara: "I return home greatly pleased."
The meeting with Sarkisian "allows us to look to the future with hope," he said.
Asked what steps were taken to overcome problems, he said he had left Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Yerevan to work with his Armenian counterpart to "fill in the details of the framework set out by the two presidents."
Commenting on the protests, Gul said: "those who were opposed to my visit made their position clear, without getting carried away."
Turkey opposes Yerevan's support for Armenian secessionists in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan. And Turkey's closure of the border has hurt the economy of tiny, landlocked Armenia.
The strain in relations has contributed to Armenia's being excluded from strategic energy pipelines that connect the oil and gas fields of the Caspian Sea to terminals on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.
Turkey, a NATO member, has increasingly shown its desire to become a regional peacemaker. It is currently mediating indirect talks between Syria and Israel, and is seeking to contribute to peace between Russia and Georgia, an eastern neighbor of Turkey.
Turkey was alarmed last month when Russia invaded Georgia and then recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations. Ankara fears such secessions might inspire its own separatist Kurds, or provoke Armenia to boost support for separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Improved ties with Armenia could help ameliorate Turkey's strained relations with about 20 countries whose legislatures have declared the WWI-era massacres to be genocide.
Armenians claim the Ottoman government carried out a plan of genocide against its Armenian population, and want Turkey to acknowledge the atrocity.
Turkey has proposed that Armenia join it in establishing a committee of historians to investigate the issue. Armenia has declined until diplomatic relations are forged.
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