Football fans in the old Ottoman capital of Bursa are under orders to display the best of “Turkish hospitality” to signal a willingness to end a century of animosity, as Armenia’s president arrives to watch Wednesday’s match between the two national sides.

Ticket sales are tightly controlled; brandishing provocative symbols is banned. One group of notoriously unruly local fans even got a visit from the president to put them on best behaviour for a game where, for many, diplomacy matters far more than the score.