Political figures ruined the game
Turkish football players left the Ataturk stadium of Bursa with greetings from Turkish football fans. The Armenian team lost 2-0 and didn't score one goal.
One of the Armenian journalists who was following up on the game tried to console some Armenians and fellow journalists that the Armenian team wasn't that bad.
Even journalists felt the psychological pressure from the Turk football fans.
"This was a moral victory," said one journalist, but the consoling words of journalists didn't help Armenian American Meline to get emotional and leave the stadium, crying.
After the game, "A1+" tried to find out president of the Armenian Football Federation Ruben Hayrapetyan's mood.
"How should I feel after we lost? Of course, I feel bad," he said. But he doesn't blame the football players because it was truly difficult to play under the psychological pressure of the Turks. "in the first half of the game, they were confused and were bothered by the psychological pressure from the crowd. Then they pulled themselves together and played the game."
The Turkish team scored two goals in the first half of the game. This was the second match between Armenia and Turkey in a year and it was the same score as in Yerevan. Hayrapetyan doesn't blame the chief trainer either.
Threw stones at Armenian journalists
We asked Ruben Hayrapetyan if he feels any change in the attitude of Turks after the signing of the Turkey-Armenia protocols.
"Yes, at the highest level. A drunk man approached me at the restaurant and said that we have no right to live in bad relations because of Azerbaijan."
Mr. Hayrapetyan has the following explanation for the fact that the Turks made noise during the RA national anthem, waved the Azerbaijani flags, while the Armenian journalists were not allowed to wave the Armenian flag, despite the ban on that. "First, Turkish journalists were also given a warning in Armenia and secondly, there are nearly 21,000 Azerbaijani living in Bursa."
As far as the Turks throwing stones at the cars of Armenian journalists coming to the stadium, Mr. Hayrapetyan said that there is no explanation for that.
Before the game, Serzh Sargsyan gave some inspiration to the football players. "We all knew that there was going to be big pressure at the stadium. The stadium in Bursa is one of the worst stadiums in Turkey," said Hayrapetyan.
If there was no pressure
Armenian football fans were not too surprised by Armenia's defeat and explained that unlike the weak Armenian team, the Turkish team is one of the most powerful teams in the world and the good thing is that there was not much of a difference in the score. There were hundreds of people from Armenia and as much Armenians from Istanbul. The latter actually reprimanded the Armenian journalists for waving the tricolor.
Turkish woman Shbilir Habar Tuturexa compared the football match to the signing of the protocols in Zurich and considered them to lack color. She said that the Turkish political officials ruined the match and it turned more into politics than a football match. She says that the main reason for that is the pressure. The more officials and parties pressure, the game will not be a game.
Karine Asatryan
Bursa
