Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan received his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis on 5 September at a joint press conference hosted in Turkiye’s capital, cementing a positive and new era for relations between Athens and Ankara.
After the conference, Fidan told reporters, “Ankara and Athens have differences of opinion in the Aegean and Mediterranean. The sides now must bring a new approach to solving their problems.”
In the past few years, Greece and Turkiye have experienced ongoing political tensions primarily centered around territorial disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea, with both nations vying for control of energy resources. These tensions have led to military standoffs and naval incidents, in addition to Greece condemning Turkiye for its occasional violation of its airspace. The island of Cyprus also remains divided by the Green Line, which separates the Greek side from the Turkish side, ever since Turkiye invaded Cyprus in 1974 to prevent it from uniting with Greece.
However, Athens assisted Ankara following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria in February, resulting in the deaths of over 50,000 people.
In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a rare meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Vilnius, which experts considered to be a positive direction for diplomacy between the two nations.
Fidan has also affirmed that Greece and Turkiye will maintain consistent dialogue “on the basis of common interests in all areas,” without any preconditions.
According to Greece’s foreign minister, both countries are set to hold a high-level cooperation council meeting in Thessaloniki before the end of the year.
Fidan further disclosed that he and his Greek counterpart addressed longstanding disputes such as the Cyprus issue and the Turkish minority that continues to reside in Greece. The two ministers have encouraged a “positive agenda” between the two, as it would boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, commerce, technology, and transportation.
The Turkish foreign minister added that he will meet with his Greek counterpart in Greece to address several matters under a “Joint Action Plan.”
Source: The Cradle