"When President Abdullah Gül decided in 2008 to watch the match between the national football teams of Turkey and Armenia for the European Cup, together with Armenian President Serzh Sargsian in Yerevan, it was a big deal," an article by Murat Yetkin published by Hürriyet Daily News reads.
"There was hope on the horizon for trying to leave behind the deep conflict between the two nations over the mass killing of Armenians during the First World War, in the last years of the six-century-long Ottoman Empire," the author writes.
"For years, Turkish governments had dismissed the cry of Armenians for recognizing the massacres - ignited by a decree of the fallen Ottoman government on April 24, 1915 for the deportation of Armenians from the areas of the Russian occupation - as genocide. Gül’s call was no such recognition," the article reads. "Neither was Sargsian’s invitation to Gül for the football match. When I interviewed Sargsian in Yerevan in 2008, he said that no one could find any Armenian on earth who would say that those massacres were not a genocide, but that could not be an obstacle for establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries."
"Yesterday was the first time that a Turkish prime minister has issued a statement on the eve of April 24, offering condolences, sharing the grief of the grandsons and granddaughters of those who lost their lives, also saying the deportation had caused “inhumane consequences,” Murat Yetkin informs.
"In his statement, Erdoğan carefully made a distinction between the Ottoman Sultanate government of the time and the Republic-era governments, making a point of saying that the establishment of the Turkish Republic on the 94th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Parliament was actually against the wrongdoings of the final Ottoman governments, including their welcoming of invading armies," the article reads.
"Perhaps it is not the exact wording that most Armenians in Armenia, Turkey and elsewhere have been waiting for. But it clearly states a shift in the mentality in a positive direction," the author believes.
