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YEREVAN - The presidents of Turkey and Armenia said Saturday there now is a "political will" to resolve decades of animosity, following landmark talks in Yerevan.
"I hope that this visit will create the possibility to improve bilateral relations," Turkey's Abdullah Gul at a joint press statement in Yerevan alongside Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian.
Sarkisian declared there is a "political will to decide the questions between our countries, so that these problems are not passed on to the next generation."
Gul was paying Saturday a landmark visit to Armenia -- the first by a Turkish president since Armenia's independence in 1991 -- for the first of two World Cup qualifiers between the two national teams.
Sarkisian said he had been invited by Gul to attend the return fixture in Turkey next month.
"Today the president of Turkey invited me for a reciprocal visit to Turkey to watch the next match. I think this is a good start," Sarkisian said, without specifying if he would attend.
Gul said the two "shared opinions on how to bring stability and cooperation to the Caucasus region" and thanked Sarkisian for welcoming a Turkish proposal for a new regional forum in the volatile zone.
NATO member Turkey has called for the establishment of a forum to boost cooperation in the Caucasus, involving regional countries and Moscow, after tensions between Georgia and Russia erupted in a military conflict last month.
Sarkisian, for his part, said he was "very pleased" to see from Turkey "a readiness to create stability and cooperation in the region."
The two countries -- which have no diplomatic relations -- have waged an international diplomatic battle over Yerevan's efforts to have the 1915-1917 massacre of Armenians recognised as genocide.
In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-majority region in Azerbaijan which declared independence.
Under attack from the opposition at home, Gul only publicly accepted Sarkisian's invitation to attend the match this week and there had been doubts he would follow through with the trip.
- AFP /ls
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