ANKARA - President Abdullah Gul will travel to Armenia next week to attend World Cup qualifiers between Armenia and Turkey, in a landmark visit expected to ease relations between the two foes, a press report said Saturday.
Gul's office would not confirm the report by the daily newspaper Vatan but if the visit takes place on September 6 it could help improve relations between the neighbours.
Vatan said Gul would travel to Yerevan for the match and return to Turkey the same evening. The president's office will announce the trip within the next few days, it added.
Gul said on Tuesday that he had not taken a decision on whether to go to Yerevan.
He sent a reconciliatory message to Armenia earlier this month, saying Turkey was "no enemy" to any country in its region.
The conflict between Georgia and Russia shows the need for "early measures to resolve frozen problems in the region and... prevent instability in the future," said Gul in televised remarks.
In 1993 Turkey shut its border with its eastern neighbour in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia, dealing a heavy economic blow to the impoverished nation in the strategic Caucasus region.
Diplomats from Armenia and Turkey met secretly in Switzerland in July in a fresh effort to normalise ties following three rounds of talks in 2005 and 2006. No progress is so far publicly known.
Armenian and Turkish leaders have meanwhile met on the sidelines of international gatherings, including a Black Sea regional summit in Istanbul last year.
08/30/2008 08:52 GMT