Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instructed 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, vitality assets within the japanese Mediterranean, flights over the Aegean Sea, and the division of Cyprus.
Since each leaders have been re-elected final yr, they’ve began taking high-profile steps to enhance ties.
“Regardless of disagreements, we deal with a constructive agenda by retaining our dialogue channels open,” Erdogan instructed a joint information convention with Mitsotakis on Monday.
“We confirmed right this moment that alongside our confirmed disagreements, we are able to chart a parallel web page of agreements,” Mitsotakis mentioned.
“Wanting in direction of the various 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 conflict 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 mentioned that he was saddened by the Greek place that deems Hamas a “terrorist” organisation.
The Turkish president mentioned on the joint information convention that greater than 1,000 members of the Palestinian group have been being handled in hospitals throughout Turkey. Erdogan has repeatedly reiterated that Hamas is a “resistance motion”.
“Let’s comply with disagree,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis mentioned in response.
The group as an entire or in some situations its navy wing, the Qassam Brigades, is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Israel, the USA, the European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan.
On October 7, Hamas fighters led an unprecedented assault on Israel killing a minimum of 1,139 individuals, principally civilians, in accordance with an Al Jazeera tally primarily based on Israeli statistics, and seizing about 250 others as captives.
Dozens of captives have 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 conflict on Gaza that has levelled a lot of the territory, displaced greater than 80 % of the inhabitants and killed greater than 35,000 individuals, principally girls and youngsters, 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 conflict 5 occasions in as many many years. A pleasant assembly befell final yr 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 in regards to 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 acquired worse after the 2017 go to. The next yr, 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 trying to seek for undersea oil and gasoline in what it thought-about its jurisdiction. Turkey referred to as Greece’s bluff the next January, permitting its ship Oruc Reis to conduct surveys for per 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 all the 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 referred to 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 conflict towards 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’ international ministers made a present of friendship by touring the wreckage collectively.
After elections in each nations in Could and June, newly mandated international ministers met in Ankara in September, paving the way in which for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Erdogan to satisfy on the sidelines of the United Nations Normal Meeting two weeks later.
