In the first trip by a Turkish head of state to the ex-Soviet nation, Gul held talks with Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian, after which the two pledged to overcome decades of enmity.

Both leaders said there was now the "political will" to mend ties between the two neighbours before heading off together to Yerevan's Hrazdan stadium to watch a World Cup football qualifier between their nations.

But in a sign of the difficult road ahead, Gul's arrival at the match and the Turkish national anthem were greeted with loud boos and hisses by Armenian fans.

"I hope that this visit will create the possibility to improve bilateral relations," Gul said after his landmark meeting in the Armenian capital.

Sarkisian declared there is a "political will to decide the questions between our countries, so that these problems are not passed on to the next generation."

He also said he had been asked by Gul to attend a return football fixture in Turkey on October 14 but did not say whether or not he had accepted.

The two countries -- which have no diplomatic relations -- have waged an international diplomatic battle over Yerevan's efforts to have the 1915-1917 massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians recognised as genocide.

Several hundred angry nationalist protestors lined the route of Gul's motorcade as it made its way into the capital from Yerevan airport to see Sarkisian.

Holding aloft their nation's flag as well as the emblem of the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation, they complained bitterly that Gul was visiting when Turkey refuses to admit genocide.

"We are here because we want to tell the entire world that we do not forget the genocide of 1915. We will not welcome Gul or any other Turk until they have recognised the genocide," one protester, Bardasar Akhpar, told AFP.

At the start of the match, about 80 young protesters gathered at a monument to victims of the killings in central Yerevan, laying flowers and lighting torches that they said would burn for the entirety of the game.

"We want to draw (Gul's) attention to this monument, so he knows it is not standing empty and that people have gathered here to show that the young generation remembers everything," said organiser Airapet Babaian.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed between 1915 and 1917 in orchestrated massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart -- a claim supported by several other countries.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.

Officials said extra security measures had been employed on Gul's airport route and at the match, while local media reported that both Turkish and Armenian snipers would be training their sights across the Hrazdan stadium.

Apart from the protesters on the airport road, the streets of Yerevan appeared calm ahead of the game.

Planeloads of Turkish fans and peace activists had been arriving in the city since Friday.

"I'm not interested in football at all. In fact, I hate it because of the nationalism that comes with it," said Ahmet Turkana, a Turkish activist from a pro-democracy group called Young Civilians.

"But today it's different. Football is here to unite, not to divide."

Sevak Sahakian, a hotel worker in Yerevan said: "Everyone knows about it and people are happy because they hope better ties with Turkey will improve daily life. But people aren't enthusiastic because they don't trust the Turks."

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991.

In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia over Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-majority region in Azerbaijan which declared independence.

The move dealt a heavy blow to Armenia, an impoverished nation wedged between Turkey and Azerbaijan in the strategic Caucasus region.