ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Archenemies Turkey and Greece will test a five-month friendship initiative on Monday when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Ankara.
The two NATO members, who share decades of mutual hostility, tense borders and disputed waters, agreed in December to sideline the conflict. Instead, they focus on trade and energy, repairing cultural ties, and a long list of other things on their so-called positive agenda.
Here’s a look at what both countries hope to achieve and the conflicts that have plagued relations in the past.
Mitsotakis met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday as part of efforts to improve relations following the solidarity Athens showed with Ankara after the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkey last year. He plans to have a meeting with
The two leaders have clear differences over the Israel-Hamas war, but both want to prevent further destabilization in the eastern Mediterranean as the conflict continues to escalate in Ukraine.
Commenting on the trip last week, Mitsotakis said: “We always go into talks with Turkey with confidence and have no illusions that Turkey’s position will not change from moment to moment.” “Still, I think it’s essential to keep the channels of communication open when we disagree.”
“We should be able to disagree without tension and ensure that it does not always lead to escalation on the ground,” he added.
Ioannis Grigoriadis, a professor of political science at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said the two leaders would seek to “expand the positive agenda and explore win-win solutions for both sides” such as trade, tourism and commerce. He said he was deaf. Immigration.
President Erdoğan visited Athens in early December, and since then the two countries have maintained regular high-level contacts to facilitate various fence-mending efforts, including educational exchanges and tourism.
This summer, Turkish citizens can visit 10 Greek islands using local visas, bypassing the more cumbersome formalities required to enter Europe’s common travel area zone known as the Schengen area.
“This not only creates a great opportunity to improve economic relations between the two countries, but also helps Greeks and Turks realize that they have more in common than they realise, and brings the two stable societies closer together.” It’s an opportunity,” Grigoriadis said.
Athens denies NATO ‘ally’ Turkey’s claims to Greek islandshttps://t.co/CuetmVY4NH
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Athens and Ankara have come to the brink of war several times over the past 50 years due to disagreements, mostly over maritime borders and rights to explore resources in the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean.
The two countries are also embroiled in a dispute over Cyprus, which was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup d’état by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the northern third of the island.
Disputes over the exploration of energy resources led to a naval standoff in 2020, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to halt talks with Mitsotakis’ government. But the two met three times last year, following Erdogan’s broader efforts to thaw relations and re-engage with the West.
The two countries’ foreign ministers, Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and Greece’s George Gerapetritis, will take part in Monday’s talks and will hold separate talks.
Weeks before Mitsotakis’ visit, Erdogan announced he would open a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque, drawing criticism from Greece and the Greek Orthodox Church. Like Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia, Chora operated as a museum for several decades before being converted into a mosque.
Meanwhile, Turkey has criticized Greece’s recently announced plan to declare areas of the Ionian and Aegean Seas as “marine parks” to protect aquatic life. Turkey opposes the unilateral declaration in the Aegean region, where some areas are still disputed, and denounces the move as a “step to obstruct the normalization process.”
Grigoriadis said Turkey and Greece could focus on restoring ruined Ottoman monuments in Greece and Greek Orthodox monuments in Turkey. “This is an opportunity” to improve relations, he said.
