The office did not publicize a congratulatory letter which it said was sent by Gul to Sarkisian.
There was no word on that letter on Gul’s official website.
The Turkish president sent a similar message to his Armenian counterpart in September last year. He reportedly expressed hope that the Turkish-Armenian normalization protocols signed in October 2009 ago will “serve as the basis” for future relations between the two neighboring states.
The protocols commit them to establish diplomatic relations and open their border, which Turkey had closed in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan.
The Turkish government has since made the protocols’ ratification conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a condition rejected by Armenia. Sarkisian warned late last month that Yerevan will formally annul the protocols unless Ankara drops that linkage.
The Turkish-Armenian agreements were signed in Zurich just over a year after Gul’s historic visit to Yerevan. He was invited by Sarkisian to attend a first-ever game between the two countries’ national soccer teams. The two leaders watched the return leg of the match in the Turkish city of Bursa in 2009.