Parse error: syntax error

hi guys.
first of all ive got to say that im not a professional php or wordpress user. i havent done any expirience with php boefore therefore im asking for help here, even my problem is simple.

im using the rio theme
after uploading everything looked fine first but
when i tried to press the ‘comments’ button an error message at the bottom of the page appeared:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘}’ in /directory/wordpress/wp-content/themes/rio/comments.php on line 1

here are the forst lines of the comments.php page:

<?php // Do not delete these linesif (‘comments.php’ == basename($_SERVER[‘SCRIPT_FILENAME’]))die (‘Bitte diese Seite nicht direkt laden. Danke!’);if (!empty($post->post_password)) { // if there’s a passwordif ($_COOKIE[‘wp-postpass_’ . COOKIEHASH] != $post->post_password) { // and it doesn’t match the cookie?><p class=”nocomments”><?php _e(“Dieser Beitrag ist Passwort geschützt. Um ihn anzusehen gib bitte das Passwort ein:”); ?><p><?php return; } }/* This variable is for alternating comment background */$oddcomment = ‘even’;?><div id=”watertownStrip”><div class=”responses”><?php if ($comments) : ?><

im sorry the makers of this theme didnt seem to care much about the structure, it looks quite chaotic.
i hope youll be able to help me anyhow.

thanks

leo