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Turkish, Armenian Leaders Hold Talks Ahead Of Football Match

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  • Turkish, Armenian Leaders Hold Talks Ahead Of Football Match

    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."
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