Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advised Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitotakis that there have been “no unsolvable issues” between their nations because the leaders met in Ankara.
Turkey and Greece have lengthy been at odds over points together with maritime boundaries, power sources within the japanese Mediterranean, flights over the Aegean Sea, and the division of Cyprus.
Since each leaders had been re-elected final 12 months, they’ve began taking high-profile steps to enhance ties.
“Regardless of disagreements, we concentrate on a constructive agenda by preserving our dialogue channels open,” Erdogan advised a joint information convention with Mitsotakis on Monday.
“We confirmed in the present day that alongside our confirmed disagreements, we are able to chart a parallel web page of agreements,” Mitsotakis stated.
“Trying in direction of the numerous issues that unite us, we want to intensify our bilateral contacts within the coming interval.”
Mitsotakis reiterated Greece’s help for Turkey’s EU accession “regardless of nice difficulties … on the situation it integrates to the European acquis.”
Hamas disagreement
The 2 leaders additionally mentioned Israel’s battle on Gaza. Whereas they agreed {that a} long-term ceasefire is required, they gave the impression to be deeply divided over the standing of the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza.
Erdogan stated that he was saddened by the Greek place that deems Hamas a “terrorist” organisation.
The Turkish president stated on the joint information convention that greater than 1,000 members of the Palestinian group had been being handled in hospitals throughout Turkey. Erdogan has repeatedly reiterated that Hamas is a “resistance motion”.
“Let’s comply with disagree,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated in response.
The group as an entire or in some cases its army wing, the Qassam Brigades, is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Israel, the US, the European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan.
On October 7, Hamas fighters led an unprecedented assault on Israel killing not less than 1,139 folks, largely civilians, in accordance with an Al Jazeera tally based mostly on Israeli statistics, and seizing about 250 others as captives.
Dozens of captives had been launched in change for a whole bunch of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails throughout a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas in November, however Israel says dozens of others are nonetheless being held in Gaza.
Israel responded to the Hamas-led assault by launching a devastating battle on Gaza that has levelled a lot of the territory, displaced greater than 80 % of the inhabitants and killed greater than 35,000 folks, largely girls and kids, in accordance with Palestinian authorities.
Previous unpleasantness
Ties between Ankara and Athens have lengthy been fraught, with the 2 nations arriving on the brink of battle 5 instances in as many many years. A pleasant assembly passed off final 12 months when Erdogan visited Greece in an try to reset the connection with constructive agreements.
However his earlier go to to the Greek capital in 2017 was a catastrophe. He and then-Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos argued over the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, which set the borders between the 2 nations.
Later, Erdogan and then-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras traded accusations concerning the division of Cyprus. Erdogan blamed the Greek facet for 2 failed rounds of talks to reunify the island in 2004 and 2017.
Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities after inter-communal clashes in 1964 and a Turkish invasion of the island 10 years later, following a Greek-inspired coup.
Issues obtained worse after the 2017 go to. The next 12 months, Turkey proclaimed its Blue Homeland coverage, claiming sovereign industrial rights to use undersea wealth beneath 462,000sq km (178,400sq miles) of the east Mediterranean, a lot of which Greece additionally claimed beneath worldwide maritime regulation.
In 2019, Turkey agreed to use a swath of the east Mediterranean with Libya, additional encroaching on what Greece noticed as its personal maritime jurisdiction. The European Union denounced the memorandum as “unlawful” beneath worldwide regulation.
Shortly after, Greece unofficially warned Turkey that it will sink any Turkish survey ship making an attempt to seek for undersea oil and fuel in what it thought-about its jurisdiction. Turkey known as Greece’s bluff the next January, permitting its ship Oruc Reis to conduct surveys for every week southeast of Rhodes.
Greece despatched a frigate to look at the Oruc Reis with out attacking it, however the next summer time, the Oruc Reis returned, and your entire Hellenic Navy deployed throughout the Aegean inside hours in a state of heightened alert. Turkey’s navy did the identical. The standoff continued till August, when two frigates from opposing navies collided, and the US known as for detente.
Hydrocarbons weren’t the one supply of friction. Erdogan allowed asylum seekers to storm Greek borders in 2020 and disputed Greece’s sovereignty over its east Aegean Islands in 2021. And Turkey has a standing risk of battle in opposition to Greece, ought to try to increase its territorial waters within the Aegean to 12 nautical miles, which Greece says is according to worldwide regulation.
The turning level within the escalation was offered by two highly effective earthquakes that levelled Turkish cities in February 2023, killing tens of 1000’s.
Greece’s was the primary abroad search-and-rescue crew to reach, and the 2 nations’ overseas ministers made a present of friendship by touring the wreckage collectively.
After elections in each nations in Could and June, newly mandated overseas ministers met in Ankara in September, paving the best way for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Erdogan to fulfill on the sidelines of the United Nations Common Meeting two weeks later.
