The good atmosphere in which Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Athens on Thursday and met with the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is also reflected in the major Turkish media.
What is mainly highlighted is Erdoğan's visit to the Greek capital after six years and his desire - as he stated - for Greece and Turkey to make the Aegean "a sea of peace and cooperation".
The Anadolu agency presents Erdoğan's visit to Athens with the central title, "We want to turn the Aegean into a sea of peace and cooperation," while publushing the statements he made after the end of the meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan: "Ege'yi barış ve işbirliği denizi haline getirelim istiyoruz. Türkiye ve Yunanistan olarak atacağımız ortak adımlarla dünyaya örnek olalım arzusundayız"
— AA Canlı (@AACanli) December 7, 2023
“We wish to solve our current problems through constructive dialogue, good neighbourliness and joint efforts within the framework of international law. We exchanged views (with Mitsotakis) on our stance in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean and asked our foreign ministers to discuss further. Mr. Mitsotakis is one of the most important partners of the EU. A fair, permanent and sustainable solution of the Cyprus issue based on the events on the island will be to the benefit of the entire region," commented Erdoğan, while also referring to the "camp in Lavrio ", emphasising: "(Closing the Lavrio camp) I emphasised that care must be taken to prevent the creation of similar camps that provide shelter to terrorists in Greece."
"There is no problem that cannot be solved between us. We want to turn the Aegean into a sea of peace and cooperation. We want to be an example for the world with the joint steps we will take as Turkey and Greece," said Erdoğan.
For its part, the newspaper Hürriyet talked about a conference that gathered attention from all over the world. He described Erdoğan's visit to Athens after six years as "definitive" and focused on the comment made by the Turkish president during his meeting with Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
"Let's see the glass as half full", as well as on a phrase from his meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis: "We are entering a new era with Greece, and we must strengthen it. No problem cannot be solved between us."
CNN Türk also talks about "Erdoğan's decisive meeting in Athens after six years."
"The Turkish president emphasised the new era of relations with Greece, while after the meeting with Mitsotakis, he said that 'we should not wait so long for our next meeting.' The Greek Prime Minister said for his part that "we have decided to regenerate our relations," writes the outlet.
The pro-government Yeni Şafak talks about the presence of President Erdoğan after six years and his desire to "turn the Aegean into a sea of peace and cooperation".
At the same time, the outlet published a part of the Turkish president's statements after the meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during which he said: "We had extremely useful meetings and discussed the steps we will take. We will meet at least once a year. We are satisfied with the closure of the terrorist camp in Lavrio. We want to make the Aegean a sea of peace."
The newspaper also presented an excerpt from the statements of Kyriakos Mitsotakis: "We decided to revive our relations. We set a target of increasing the bilateral trade volume to 10 billion dollars. We discussed visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the Aegean islands. We will revive the 7-day visa liberalisation for the islands."
Finally, TRT Haber also stands by Erdoğan's statement about the Aegean and his belief that "there is no problem between Greece and Turkey that we cannot solve."
