Agreeing that they disagree, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed yesterday from New York their mutual willingness to improve Greek-Turkish relations by promoting easy issues on which they can find common ground and leaving for later the more difficult and thorny issues, such as the appeal to the Hague to determine maritime zones and the Cyprus issue, on which the two countries disagree.
The meeting of the two leaders, which was the sixth in a row since September 2019, when they had the first four-four again on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, took place in the so-called "Turkish House," a multi-storey building that is the seat of Ankara's diplomatic mission to the United Nations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ4dj-n44Z0&ab_channel=ProtoThema
The two leaders talked for about an hour - "in a perfect atmosphere", as noted by diplomatic observers - with Foreign Ministers George Gerapapetritis and Hakan Fidan by their side, who had prepared the agenda for the discussions since the previous day, as well as "the theme" of the meeting.
Also present were their diplomatic advisors, Anna Maria Boura and Akif Çağatay Kılıç.
Recognising the need to preserve the excellent atmosphere that marked their previous meeting in Vilnius last July, the two leaders set a new date for December 7 in Thessaloniki, where it was agreed to the Supreme Cooperation Council of Greece - Turkey with the participation of ministers from the two countries who will discuss portfolio issues and sign cooperation agreements in various matters in which a standard recommendation will be found.
In the meantime, the road map agreed upon by the two foreign ministers during the meeting they had on September 5 in Ankara will apply with the following steps:
- In mid-October, the deputy foreign ministers of the two countries responsible for political dialogue and the positive agenda will meet, while
- Confidence Building Measures will be discussed within November.
Of course, as Greek government sources emphasised, according to Proto Thema, a condition for all of this to proceed and to maintain the excellent climate in Greek-Turkish relations is not to repeat the rhetorical outbursts and threats of the past.
The same sources noted with satisfaction that in the last months, especially after Vilnius, there have been no moves by Turkey to disturb the good atmosphere in the relations between Athens and Ankara.
https://twitter.com/trpresidency/status/170453676500706534
"Don't let boats with immigrants fall into the sea."
The statements made by the Greek prime minister after the meeting, speaking of "a productive discussion," were also in this light.
As he said, "We agreed to continue working to deepen the positive climate in Greek-Turkish relations, which has been established in recent months, and we clearly defined the level of contacts and meetings for the next period at the level of political dialogue, Confidence Building Measures, but also promoting the positive agenda".
Mitsotakis continued, "we also had the opportunity to discuss several common challenges facing our two countries."
He spoke indicatively of the problem of illegal immigration for which he expressed the belief that "Turkey's cooperation is necessary to reduce immigration flows to a minimum."
On this issue, Greek sources emphasised that "the problem will be limited when boats with immigrants are not allowed to fall into the sea from the Turkish coast".
The two leaders also discussed, as the Prime Minister said, "both the issues and the major challenges of the climate crisis, as Greece and Turkey are two Mediterranean countries, which this summer were also faced with significant natural disasters, a product of global warming and of the climate crisis, which is already here with us."
Mitsotakis finally expressed his belief that "the field of cooperation can be explored further, so that it becomes the subject of some specific agreements, which will be signed within the framework of the Supreme Council of Cooperation, in December in Thessaloniki".
After the end of the meeting, a senior government source stated that "on the Turkish side, a willingness to proceed without tensions to the next step to normalise the relations between the two countries, but without introducing suffocating time frames, because that does not help," was evident in the meeting.
In particular, regarding the critical issue of the boundary of maritime zones, the same source pointed out that "it is an issue that has not been resolved in the last 40 years". And therefore, "tight timetables should not be introduced because they do not help to solve it".
The same was pointed out regarding the possibility of an appeal to The Hague, and competent sources referred to what he said last Sunday at the TIF: "it is still far away".
About the Cyprus issue, finally, informed sources emphasised that the Greek Prime Minister conveyed to the Turkish President that Greece is not discussing another solution that is not by the resolutions of the United Nations and is in favour of resuming the dialogue procedures for the answer by appointing an expert sent by the UN and on a tripartite basis: Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and the United Nations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-nYn0DSD6Q&ab_channel=ProtoThema
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