Greece’s foreign minister on Friday reiterated that there’s no chance of any issue dealing with national sovereignty being discussed with Turkey, while at the same time noting that Athens has made a conscientious decision to proceed with a normalization of bilateral relations with the neighboring country.
Speaking during a morning interview on a private Athens television station, FM Giorgos Gerapetritis repeated that the Mitsotakis government maintains a consistent and unwavering position vis-à-vis official Turkey – especially over issues affecting sovereignty – with progress being the key, as he said, to inching towards more “complex issues” in a bid to ensure long-term calm.
He spoke after his meeting, a day earlier in Brussels, with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, adding that the talks were held in a good climate and broached issues involving both EU-Turkey relations and bilateral ties. He also said that the Cyprus issue was discussed.
“The decision we made when I took over at the ministry, under the direction of the prime minister, was to proceed with a normalization of Greek-Turkish ties, and to see if it’s possible to gradually venture into more complex issues, which will ensure a lasting calm in our wider region,” he said.
Gerapetritis noted that Athens is satisfied over the latest course of Greek-Turkish relations, especially when compared with a recent past mired by mass illegal migration emanating from the neighboring country, almost daily Turkish violations of Greek airspace in the eastern Aegean as well as the bellicose and revisionist rhetoric that was previously heard from top Turkish officials. He claimed that migration now does not rank as a major problem, similarly referring to airspace violations.
Gerapetritis reminded that in the 2015-2016 period (under the then SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government) some 1.5 million undocumented migrants crossed the Aegean to land on Greek territory, while also referring to “hundreds of violations” of airspace, which entailed a distinct risk for sparking a “hot incident”.
Getting further into details, Gerapetritis said he brought up the issue of harassment Turkish naval vessels of a research vessel off the Greek isle of Kasos, in the southeast Aegean, with Fidan.
Another topic discussed was a coming meeting next month in New York City between Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Asked about the Cyprus issue, he said efforts to restart talks are progressing.
