At first sight it may seem ridiculous that of all things, a war can bring together two nations that have been bitter rivals for decades, but this is precisely what happened when Turkish president Abdullah Gul paid a historic visit to neighbouring Armenia.

Although the formal occasion for Gul's trip was a football match, which made many media label the move as "soccer diplomacy", the real reason behind his visit was undoubtedly last month's war between Georgia and Russia and the common desire to secure more stability to the recently-turned-volatile Caucasus region.

On September 6, Gul flew to Yerevan on the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to watch a football World Cup 2010 qualifier between the national teams of the two countries. The visit was a landmark, as the very presence of a Turkish head of state in Armenia was a precedent in itself. The two neighbours do not have diplomatic relations, because of a major dispute has been dividing them ever since World War 1.

Over the years 1915/17, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the then Ottoman Empire. Ever since, Armenia has requested that the massacres be labelled as genocide, something Turkey strongly opposes, saying the killings were much less in number than the Amernians claim, and that many Turks were killed as well, and all of them were victims of the war.

In 1993 Turkey closed its border with Armenia because of the Armenian occupation of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region, part of the territory of Turkey's close ally of Azerbaijan.

"We hope we will be able to demonstrate goodwill to solve the problems between our countries and not transfer them to future generations," Sargsyan said after the meeting, as quoted by Reuters.

According to Turkish daily Hurriyet, Gul and Sargsyan decided to improve bilateral diplomatic ties by raising the level of the regular consulting mechanism between their states to foreign ministers, speeding up the efforts to establish a joint commission for resolving the genocide claims, forming a separate economic commission and possibly opening the closed border between them to send humanitarian aid to Armenia.

The general spirit of optimism that prevailed following the meeting of the two high-ranking officials shows that just as Turkey won 2:0 at Yerevan's Hrazdan Stadium, it can score even higher if it manages to become a top player in the region.

The fact that namely regional issues prompted the visit was quickly confirmed by media reports saying that Gul and Sargsyan devoted much of their talks to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue but did not even mention the genocide claims. Sargsyan also spoke well of Turkey's idea of creating a Caucasus Stability and Co-operation Platform, which the Turkish authorities came up with following the eruption of the crisis in Georgia. It is aimed at creating a forum between Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan that would promote stability in the region by peacefully resolving actual and potential conflicts.

The idea was assessed as a promising one both in the region and at European Union level. "The Presidency [of the EU] takes this opportunity to express its serious interest in the Turkish initiative [...] This is a significant Turkish contribution to this region's stability, security and development, which is taking on a new dimension in the context of the conflict in Georgia," the Presidency of the EU, currently held by France, said in a statement issued prior to Gul's visit to Yerevan, hailing the trip as "a strong and encouraging sign" for bilateral relations.

In order to achieve anything, however, the Turks need not only to come to terms with the Armenians, but to lead them into making peace with the Azeris, which may prove difficult. On September 10, Gul paid a special visit to Azerbaijan to meet president Ilham Aliyev and discuss the recent developments, his meeting with Sargsyan included. Ahead of the trip, he emphasised the importance of doing away with the conflicts in the region in order to secure its stability.

"When we look at the world map we see Caucasus as small place, but there are many problems in this region. We saw conflict between Georgia and Russia a month ago. It is impossible to keep silence, we should initiate and take serious measures to solve problems of our region. [...] We have proposed Caucasus Stability and Co-operation Platform for this purpose on time," Gul said in an interview with Azeri-Press Agency, adding that "important countries of the region should take measures to solve issues via dialogue".

Be it for political, or for the always present underlying economic reasons (namely, energy, as Armenia could become an alternative oil and gas route to Georgia), Turkey has clearly shown it wants to be the active player in the Caucasus. It has taken on a diplomatic offensive, which will develop in the following months and years on different levels. Even it it fails, there will still be gains for Ankara just out of its initiator's drive, as the EU will surely pay tribute to its efforts.