Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advised Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis throughout talks in Ankara on Monday that there have been “no unsolvable issues” between their nations.
Turkey and Greece, Nato allies and historic foes, have lengthy been at odds over points together with maritime boundaries, vitality assets within the japanese Mediterranean, flights over the Aegean Sea, and ethnically cut up Cyprus.
After years of tensions that introduced the 2 to the brink of battle, they’ve began taking high-profile steps to enhance ties, particularly since each leaders have been re-elected final yr.
“Regardless of disagreements, we deal with a optimistic agenda by preserving our dialogue channels open,” Erdogan advised a joint press convention with Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis stated the leaders’ frequent conferences in current months had “proved that we neighbours can set up an strategy of mutual understanding, not as an exception however as a productive normality”.
“We confirmed at the moment that alongside our confirmed disagreements, we are able to chart a parallel web page of agreements,” he added.
Erdogan visited Athens final December and the 2 nations signed the “Declaration of Athens” geared toward setting the bottom for a roadmap to rebooting relations.
They agreed to spice up commerce, maintain communication channels open, perform army confidence-building measures to scale back tensions, and work on issues which have stored them aside.
The 2 leaders disagreed over how you can classify the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Erdogan reiterated his view that it’s a “resistance motion” and stated he was saddened by the Greek view – shared by many different Western nations – that it’s a terrorist organisation.
“Let’s conform to disagree,” Mitsotakis replied.
On Sunday, Mitsotakis advised Turkish newspaper Milliyet that his go to to Ankara – the primary in 5 years – was a possibility to guage progress and to reiterate Athens’ dedication to bettering ties.
Erdogan, talking to Greek newspaper Kathimerini on Sunday, stated the principle objective was to “elevate the extent of our bilateral relations to unprecedented heights“, including the neighbours had many points they might agree on whereas searching for options to their issues.
Nonetheless, the allies stay at loggerheads over a number of points together with maritime jurisdiction.
Greece’s plan to construct a marine park within the Aegean, which it says is for environmental functions, has upset Turkey, whereas Athens was irritated by Turkey’s resolution to show the traditional Chora church, beforehand a museum for many years, right into a mosque.
