Turkish President Abdullah Gül went to the Armenian capital city of Yerevan in September to watch the Armenia-Turkey 2010 World Cup qualifying match, accepting Sarksyan's invitation with the hope of ending the century-old hostility between Armenia and Turkey. Sarksyan was invited to watch the Turkish leg of the Turkey-Armenia 2010 World Cup qualifying match during Gül's visit to Yerevan.
"We expect to witness constructive steps soon, by which our colleagues will try to provide a suitable environment for the return visit of the Armenian president," Sarksyan told a news conference after meeting his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic. Turkey and Armenia announced in late April that they agreed on a roadmap to normalize relations between them. The roadmap, not announced to the public, is believed to include the gradual opening of the border and the establishment of diplomatic ties.
However, since the roadmap was announced, there have been very few steps taken to implement it due to Azerbaijan's strong opposition to negotiations to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia. "I will accept the invitation only in the event that the agreements reached are fulfilled, if we see real steps. I will go to Turkey if we already have the border open, or we are on the threshold of the blockade being lifted," he said.
Turkey was unable to take further steps to improve relations with Armenia due to Azerbaijan's opposition to the normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia. To address concerns raised by Azerbaijan over a possible Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to Azerbaijan on May 13. In a speech delivered before the Azerbaijani parliament at the time Erdoğan assured deputies that the border will remain closed if there is no significant breakthrough vis-à-vis the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh -- a self-declared but internationally unrecognized republic -- which was a battleground between Azerbaijani and Armenian military forces in early the 1990s.
