In September 2008, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan initiated negotiations for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations under the "patronage" of Russia and the United States. On October 10, 2009, in Zurich, Switzerland, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey signed two protocols: the “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey,” and the “Protocol on development of relations between of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey.’’
In those days, a friendly match between the Armenian and Turkish national football teams was held in Yerevan, which was attended by Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. The meeting was accompanied by several scandalous events. Before the football match, the lights of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Tsitsernakaberd were turned off so that the Turkish President would not see the monument commemorating the victims of the Genocide, and the image of Mount Ararat disappeared from the coat of arms of our team.
It was clear that it was the "concession" of the Armenian side and, in all probability, at the request of the Turkish side. Turning off the lights of the memorial was symbolically perceived in such a way that Turkey continues to deny the Genocide and is not even ready to face the lights burning near Tsitsernakaberd, and the Ararat depicted on the coat of arms is a hint of territorial demand from their point of view. This symbol was also "conceded" by our side.
And although the Armenian side insisted that it was ready to normalize relations without any preconditions, the promise could not be kept. During the football match, by turning off the lights of the Genocide Memorial and removing the image of Ararat from the team's coat of arms, our people, in fact, fulfilled the Turkish preconditions, albeit in a symbolic way. After the match that ended in the defeat of Armenia, the Armenian-Turkish negotiation or the attempt of negotiations entered the history, baptized by international journalists as “football diplomacy.”
After the signing of the protocols, Turkey abruptly changed its position and withdrew from the agreement reached on the normalization of bilateral relations "within a reasonable time" and without preconditions. The ratification of the Zurich Protocols in the Turkish Grand National Assembly was conditioned by the pro-Azerbaijani settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh issue. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that Turkey was under Azerbaijani pressure during all that time. The Armenian-Turkish talks in that country were seen as a betrayal of "small brother" by Turkey. As a result, Turkey backed down and the negotiations failed.
After the 44-day war, the second half of the "football diplomacy" seems to resume, this time in a new situation. Turkey no longer has a demand related to the Artsakh issue, but, as we see, a new demand has emerged in the form of the so-called "Zangezur Corridor". As soon as the agreement reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the railway was announced after the meetings in Brussels, which means that the connection of the "Turkish world" is ensured through the railway, the topic of the official Armenian-Turkish talks was immediately raised. And again, official Ankara brought in all the steps to coordinate with the "dear brother," the obligatory condition of taking into account its opinion, which is the most undesirable for the Armenian side.
What will be the next Turkish preconditions? After all, the main demand put forward in 2009, which was related to the return of Nagorno Karabakh, has already been removed. Maybe the renunciation of the Genocide and the Armenian demands? The fact that this country has preconditions is beyond doubt, otherwise it would not have needed to get closer to Armenia, which is exhausted from the war, small and wandering in the fog of uncertainty. The Armenian suffering has a long history and experience.