Football Diplomacy

Photo from Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Turkish football fans, protected by Armenian troops in Yerevan, 6 September, 2009.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul was in the house on 6 September in Yerevan Armenia's Republican stadium for a World Cup qualifying soccer match. It was the first ever visit to Armenia for a Turkish leader. The Caucasian Knot has lots of photo coverage.

Following the Soviet collapse, in 1993 Ankara closed the Turkish land border with Armenia in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, to Armenia's east, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The border remains closed today.

Politics is complicated in the Caucasus. Armenia's eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, supplies Caspian Sea oil via pipeline through Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey, for shipment, bypassing Russia, to the west. Georgia meanwhile, shares borders with Turkey to its west, and Russia to its north (as we all now know) along the spine of the Caucasus Mountains.

Mt. Kazbeg, on the Georgia/Russia border, is taller than all the Alps at 5047 meters, versus Mt. Blanc's 4810. Scarcely 70 miles northeast is Chechnya's capital, Grozny. And notably after the August war, Sochi, site of the 2012 winter Olympic Games, is scarcely 25 miles north along the Black Sea beyond the disputed Abkhazia region of Georgia.

Oh - and Christian Armenia borders, to its south, Islamic Iran. In June 2006, we drove down to the Khor Virap Monastery (near the Armenia/Iran border), which sits in the shadow of Mt. Ararat, in Turkey. We have extensive photo coverage of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on EarthPhotos.com.

Comments

[d.]

You know, I was reading about this in The Economist when it was still just a diplomatic opportunity, then got caught up in the Palin frenzy and completely forgot to find out what happened. What a relief that Gul accepted the invitation! A small step in the right direction, I hope, for both nations.