Gul: my visit broke psychological barriers in Caucasus

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Abdullah Gul's brief yet still landmark visit to Armenia raised hopes for dialogue that could eventually restore relations between the two estranged neighbors and help bury an almost a century old hostility over history, Today's Zaman reports.



"My visit broke psychological barriers in the Caucasus," Gul told reporters on his way back to Turkey on Saturday night after watching a World Cup qualifying match between the national teams of the two countries in Hrazdan Stadium. During his brief stay in Yerevan, Gul also had a one-and-a-half-hour meeting with his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, who had invited him to watch the game.



"The visit has huge symbolic importance: it is the first time ever a Turkish president has set foot in Armenia since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It is also a landmark step because Turkey and Armenia have had no formal ties since 1993, when Turkey severed relations and closed its border with Armenia to support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh dispute. But the origins of dispute go much deeper in history. Armenia claims the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians in eastern Anatolia during the World War I years as part of a systematic campaign of genocide," the newspaper says.



Both Gul and Sargsyan were hopeful that the visit could break the ice and open the way for dialogue to resolve differences. "We hope we will be able to demonstrate goodwill to solve the problems between our countries and not leave them to future generations," Sargsyan told a news conference after meeting with Gul on Saturday. Gul, alongside Sargsyan, said he was "leaving optimistic." "If we create a good atmosphere and climate for this process, this will be a great achievement, and will also benefit stability and cooperation in the Caucasus," he told reporters after the game.



Gul, speaking aboard the plane en route to Turkey, said there was not even a veiled reference to the Armenian Genocide issue during his talks with Sargsyan. "In contrast, the Armenian President raised the issue of Nagorno Karabakh," Gul said. "I wasn't expecting we would discuss the issue at such length," he added.