PM Erdoğan pleased with Baykal agreeing to meet

"I will not evaluate the content of the letter now. We will do it when we meet," Erdoğan added.

In a six-page letter Baykal sent Erdoğan on Monday he said he would like to meet with the prime minister this week at CHP headquarters at any time of the day if he is informed a day in advance. In the letter Baykal stressed that the initiative process “separates rather than unites” the country. “We should not find meetings behind closed doors adequate while discussing society's most important issue,” Baykal also wrote to Erdoğan.

“There should be respect for the people's right to be informed about this issue, which involves their future.”

Baykal also added that he would like to have their meeting recorded by a television crew but that the time and place of their meeting's broadcast should be decided upon together. Baykal attached three reports prepared by the CHP on the Kurdish issue to his letter to Erdoğan. These three reports were "Approach to East and Southeast Problems and Solution Proposals-1989," "Bill on Using Different Languages than Turkish-1991" and "Parts of CHP Program on East and Southeast Problems-2008."

Erdoğan said yesterday that an open session would take place in Parliament on the issue.

"We will have the opportunity to share the developments regarding the initiative process with the parliamentarians and the nation. Every step will be carried out with the implicit approval of the public. This is not a secret process," he said.

On Oct. 8 Erdoğan sent a letter to Baykal requesting a meeting with the main opposition leader regarding the democratic initiative. The two leaders have not met once since late July, when the government announced it was developing the democratic initiative.

‘We will show the Armenian team our best hospitality’

Also at his party's group meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Erdoğan urged soccer fans to forget politics when Turkey and Armenia face each other today in a World Cup qualifier, as the two neighbors aim to restore diplomatic ties.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan has confirmed that he will attend a World Cup qualifier in Turkey today, which takes place just days after Ankara and Yerevan signed an accord to end a century of hostility. Turkish President Abdullah Gül went to Yerevan last year on the first leg of what has been called "soccer diplomacy" between the two countries.

"The Armenian president and the Armenian national team will see what Turkish hospitality is," Erdoğan told the deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ahead of the game in the northwestern city of Bursa.

"I know our soccer fans in Bursa and in the rest of the country will behave like respectable fans. I believe our country and the citizens of Bursa will not bow their heads to politics and to the aims of those who want to use the game to achieve something else," Erdoğan said.

Meanwhile, authorities are implementing tight security measures to avoid possible provocations during the game. According to sources, people will not be allowed to buy tickets for the match; instead, authorities will control ticket distribution.

The two countries share a history of hostility stemming from the World War I mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Armenia says it was genocide, a term Turkey rejects.

Despite having signed accords on Saturday to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border, Turkey's demands for progress on the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, could see efforts to end a century of hostility between Turkey and Armenia stalled for months to come.

Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan, which was then fighting a losing battle against Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The governor of Bursa has said Azerbaijani flags will not be allowed into the stadium for the match, but Turkish nationalists have made some 10,000 of the flags and are distributing them in Bursa.