U.S. hopes Turkey's Gul to accept Armenian president's invitation

Officials said if Gul accepts the invitation and visits Yerevan to watch the football game between the Turkish and Armenian national teams, then this would a "great opening," Hurriyet reported on Monday.

"We want those two neighboring countries to speak to each other, to get closer, and to normalize relations between Ankara and Yerevan. We hope President Abdullah Gul accepts the invitation and visits Yerevan to watch the game," an official was quoted as saying.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian invited in early July Turkish President Abdullah Gul to watch the football match in Yerevan between the two countries on Sept. 6 for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers to mark "a new start in relations". Gul is yet to declare his official decision on the invitation as the evaluation of the Turkish foreign ministry continues.

Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it declared its independency. However there is no diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite the U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.

However, a warm exchange of letters between Sarksyan and Gul in late April raised optimism for a fresh initiative to normalize relations, while Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan then expressed his hope that Sarksyan's election victory will "lead to a new period in relations".