Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will try to take the next step in creating a positive climate in the unstable balance of recent years between Greece and Turkey within the month by meeting on September 17 or 18 in New York, on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly. This is part of a relay race to establish understanding between Athens and Ankara.
This is a challenging task, given that the two countries' positions seem to be opposed on central issues of substance where the differences are unbridgeable because Turkey insists on demands outside international law, such as questioning Greece's sovereignty over some of the Aegean islands.
After the earthquakes in Turkey, which caused as many victims as the two nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nullification of the violations of the Greek airspace by Turkish fighter aircraft and the absence of provocative movements by the neighbour's research ships in Greek sea zones allow everyone to talk about climate improvement.
Immigration, however, is the new problem that threatens to bring back suspicion to Greek-Turkish relations. In the last days of August, almost every day, 400-500 migrants, starting with various boats from the coast of Turkey, reach the Aegean islands to seek asylum.
The Greek side knows and informs the Europeans that this practice develops with the tolerance of the Turkish authorities.
However, Ankara insists that the Hellenic Coast Guard engages in so-called "pushbacks" to prevent the entry of boats carrying migrants into Greek territorial waters wherever possible. This issue will be among the first to be discussed today in Ankara by Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.
According to the schedule, the Gerapetritis-Fidan meeting will start at 10:05 and is expected to last around 2.5 hours, with the joint statements scheduled to begin at 12:30.
The question is whether the Erdoğan government will get the rewards it demands, namely new, generous financial aid from the European Union soon to turn off the taps and stop the boatloads of impoverished migrants who want to enter European lands by any means.
Athens has no problem aligning itself with the Turkish claim for new financial aid from Brussels, given that after the fatal shipwreck in Pylos, any Greek handling of the migrant waves is under the microscope of the international community and the primary foreign media.
The mission of Gerapetritis and Fidan is to prepare the ground and define the agenda so that the next meeting - the second in two months - of the leaders of Greece and Turkey does not prove to be empty.
After the four meetings on July 12 in Vilnius, laying the foundations for promoting bilateral dialogue, Mitsotakis and Erdoğan will discuss the progress of the rapprochement process, ultimately resolving the bilateral differences.
"The effort of the two ministers is to present to Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Erdoğan a homogeneous package for which there will be possibilities of convergence," an experienced diplomatic agent with many years of deep knowledge told Proto Thema.
In the preparatory meeting between Gerapetritis and Fidan, the two delegations will have the opportunity to ascertain the degree of... flexibility of the other side, which will be the crucial sample for the start of the dialogue.
And Dendias in Turkey in September
At the same time, the Greek Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, is expected to be in Turkey in September on a date that has yet to be determined. The Turks have invited Dendias, who has responded positively so far, reported Proto Thema.
After all, Dendias' visit to Turkey has been pending since his first phone call with his Turkish counterpart Yaşar Güler in July, after they assumed their duties at the Ministry of Defence.
It is recalled that in the previous days, it was circulated in the Turkish press that the Minister of Defence Yaşar Güler would come to Athens after a relevant invitation, which was ultimately not the case and was denied by the Greek Ministry of National Defence.
As part of the confidence-building measures, the heads of the military affairs portfolios in Athens and Ankara could discuss concrete steps to consolidate the "no-war" climate, perhaps with some moves around issues related to the two's major military exercises—Countries in the Aegean.
The second round of the Greek-Turkish political dialogue includes discussions between Deputy Foreign Ministers Alexandra Papadopoulou and Kostas Fragogiannis with their Turkish counterparts. Fragogiannis, responsible for Economic Diplomacy and Outreach, seems easier since he has to prepare concrete steps to show that the Greek and the Turkish people have tangible benefits from the so-called positive cooperation agenda.
For Papadopoulou, however, things could be more precise. He knows the "red lines" of the Turks and their constant attempt to expand the agenda of their claims, and he has to manoeuvre in a tiny space, making the necessary moves so that the locker room does not bury the dialogue.
"I believe that the opportunity for understanding and dialogue should not be lost," Ambassador George Savvaidis stated to Proto Thema when asked about the jurisdictional body for the delimitation of maritime zones.
READ MORE: Sözcü: Greece's North Aegean islands "belongs to Turkey."
