Erdogan Meets Greece’s Mitsotakis to Build On Recent Thaw

Selcan Hacaoglu and Sotiris Nikas
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to build on a recent thaw between the estranged neighbors after they met on the sidelines of a NATO summit Wednesday.

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The two sides agreed that the High-Level Cooperation Council would meet in Thessaloniki, Greece, in the fall, according to a readout from both governments. The council first met in 2010, but its last session was in 2016.

The two countries said in a joint statement that they “look forward to more frequent contact at all levels, towards building a climate of trust and the conditions that will lead to the improvement of Türkiye-Greece relations.”

The meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, followed signs of interest in a reconciliation, after Greece rushed to the aid of Turkey in the immediate aftermath of devastating earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people in the country’s southeast in February. It was the first encounter between the two leaders in 16 months and lasted twice as long as scheduled.

Erdogan’s meeting with Mitsotakis raised hopes that the two countries could try to defuse disputes over maritime zones and reduce tensions between their militaries from the Aegean Sea to the energy-rich Mediterranean, where Turkey has vowed to defend its own rights as well as the rights of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north of the divided island of Cyprus.

There is no quick path to resolve the complicated disputes between the neighbors, but both sides consider the restart of dialog as a positive move forward.

The Conflicts That Keep Turkey and Greece at Odds: QuickTake

The two leaders have each just won reelection, opening up an opportunity to resolve long-standing differences. Mitsotakis reiterated in a Bloomberg interview last week his will to even take the demarcation of maritime zones to the international court. He also made clear that this is the only issue he’s willing to discuss with Erdogan.

Turkey, however, wants to pursue other issues, including the demilitarization of Greek islands in the eastern Aegean that Athens says are already covered by international treaties.

Earlier on Wednesday, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said in a Twitter post right after his meeting with his Turkish counterpart that “the two sides agreed to be in contact, so as to arrange a meeting for Confidence Building Measures activities.” Those measures aim to reduce tensions — mainly on the military front — by improving contacts between the armed forces of the two countries at various levels.

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler’s office confirmed that the pair emphasized the importance of maintaining a positive agenda and keeping communications channels open.

Greece’s Mitsotakis Says Time to Recalibrate Ties With Turkey

Tensions between Turkey and Greece were unusually high three years ago when the two NATO member states narrowly avoided a military confrontation over a Turkish move to conduct a drilling survey in contested waters of the Mediterranean.

The two countries have until now recorded little progress in resolving disputes and talks to reunify Cyprus remain stalled. The island was divided in 1974 after Turkey captured the northern third with the declared purpose of protecting a Turkish-speaking minority following an Athens-backed coup by supporters of union with Greece.

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