Comments on: Two Men Behind Armenian-Turkish Football Dialogue

By: Ragan

Ragan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 05:31:03 +0000

Thanks a ton for your work, and it is too bad I had not stumbled across your blog earlier. It is wonderful to find a blog project so sustained.

By: Blogian

Blogian — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:11:55 +0000

proc, I agree with you that this match is not the work of just two men. I simply wanted to talk two of two of the men who had indirect influence on the match. Yes, Putin and Medvedev have approved – if not even suggested – the invitation. And the United States is extremely excited, as I reported last month in my private interview with the acting Ambassador, about the whole thing as well (and it might have been a suggestion by them). You could also argue that Levon Ter-Petrosyan also influenced this – Serge is trying to bring change to please the international community and show Armenia’s society that he cares about them. Again, I simply chose to write about two men who had indirect influence on the match. Obama’s presidential campaign has had influence on Gul’s decision – there is no doubt in my mind about that and I think I made a good case for it in my post. Thanks, Simon.

By: proc

proc — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:31:56 +0000

I don’t think that your observations and thoughts are true. I wonder why you think just two people would be responsible for a rapproachement of two states: there are far more important reasons than two persons in general for such a decision to be made. If you insist to makeup such a short and handy (and very American i must say) list I think you chose the wrong person.

Obama has nothing to do with this, nor do I believe Obama would really mean drastic change of the American policy regarding this issue, especially not after August 7th.

The two persons you would need to note on that list for both Turkey and Armenia, if you had to make one, are Putin and Hrant Dink. The first one because he is the one who forces to rethink the influence-sphere and security of Turkey as Turkey certainly will not accept an extension of the influence-sphere of Russia (on the contrary) nor any direct and/or indirect threats to its security. The second would be Hrant Dink as he has shown to the Turkish people what unfortunate events an unbridled and wrong nationalism can cause.

Putin has also shown the Armenian leadership how precarious and costly the current unresolved situation regarding the relations between the two states is. Hrant Dink has shown the Armenian people that the Turks care about the fate of their fellow-citizen Turks from Armenian descent.

Putin is also the main reason why the Azeri support of resolving the Karabag issue through peaceful diplomatic ways has gained speed.

I don’t know why you seem to think that an American presidential nominee would make such a profound difference on the way a key sovereign regional ally with the second largest standing army of NATO, would define its relations with a small neighbour with a territorial-area which is about 3.81% of its own territorial-area.