Turkish President Abdullah Gul's upcoming visit to Yerevan to watch a football game between Turkey and Armenia is "Turkey's domestic matter," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov said on Thursday. Some Azeri MPs criticized Gul's move, saying the visit would be wrong. (UPDATED)


It is out of question for Azerbaijan to interfere in this matter, Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku.

"We welcome this initiative positively," he also said when asked about Turkey’s proposed "Caucasus Security and Stability Platform".

The Turkish president will watch a World Cup qualifying game between the Turkish and Armenian national teams together with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan in Saturday’s historical visit.

Sargsyan invited Gul last month to attend the qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup finals to mark "a new symbolic start in the countries' relations".

Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it declared its independency. However there are no diplomatic relations between the 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 U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.

Several high-level bureaucrats, as well as Turkish and foreign journalists, are expected to accompany Gul during his visit.

Gul and Sargsian will hold a scheduled one-hour meeting at the Presidential Palace ahead of the match. The Turkish president will return to Turkey after watching the game.

CRITICISM FROM AZERI MPs
Some Azerbaijani MPs criticized the Turkish president's visit to Yerevan, saying the visit would be wrong.

The establishment of relations between Turkey and Armenia was not realized with Turkey's own will, an Azerbaijani opposition leader said, adding it was a result of pressure from the European Union, the United States and some other countries.

The visit could cause problems for Azerbaijan, Sabir Rustamkhanli, chairman of the Citizen Solidarity Party (CSP) and chairman of the Congress of World Azerbaijanis (CWA) was quoted by Anatolian Agency as saying.

EU ALSO WELCOMES
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union also welcomed the Gul’s decision and said the trip was a strong and encouraging sign for relations between Armenia and Turkey on Thursday.

"The Presidency hopes that this historic and highly symbolic visit will foster a climate favourable to the normalisation of relations between the two countries, to which it looks forward," the presidency said in a statement.