Turkish President Abdullah Gul has become the country's first leader to visit Armenia.
In a move French President Nicolas Sarkozy has praised as couragious, Gul met with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Yerevan to watch a World Cup soccer qualifying game. Relations between the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties, have been strained since Armenia occupied the Azeri enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh 15 years ago. Armenian protesters lined the streets to demonstrate against Turkey's refusal to acknowledge as genocide the deaths of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire as World War I drew to a close. Both leaders said they hoped the visit would support security in the Caucasus region.
(Deutsche Welle)
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