Armenia: Yerevan Has High Hopes for Football Diplomacy with Turkey

An October 2009 soccer game in Istanbul could be a turning point for repairing Armenia's long-strained ties with Turkey, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan predicts.

"The football match that will take place in Turkey in the fall of this year is exactly the moment that will define relations between our nations," Sargsyan was quoted by Arminfo news agency as saying. The October 14 game is a qualifying match for the World Cup tournament.

Armenia hosted a game against Turkey last September that prompted a visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the first such visit by a Turkish head-of-state. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Speaking to parliament on May 20, Sargsyan gave assurances that Yerevan's "football diplomacy" will not ease its pressure on Ankara to recognize as genocide Ottoman Turkey's 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians.