Mitsotakis – Erdogan: The next day in Greek-Turkish relations

Mitsotakis and Erdogan agreed, on Wednesday, on an autumn date for a rendezvous in Thessaloniki after their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Vilnius. The meeting  followed a year and a half of silence and belligerent rhetoric, since the last time the Turkish president and the Greek prime minister spoke in person was in Istanbul in March 2022.

The meeting in Vilnius followed the deadly earthquakes in Turkey with Erdogan having managed to become the star of the Summit once again. Even if he made commitments whose implementation will certainly depend on what he expects from the opposite side. That is, the USA mainly.

Greece – Turkey

Greece-Turkey relations appear to be particularly important for the puzzle of the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, with the US not wanting high tones. Therefore, many diplomats noted on Wednesday that the two sides did not have the worst case scenario in mind, but all were success scenarios.

The meeting was scheduled to last 30 minutes and lasted an hour or so, according to Mitsotakis‘ associates.

The difficult issues

Difficult issues were also raised in the room, such as Athens’ suspicion of Turkish intervention in Thrace, as argued by Mitsotakis, avoiding revealing what answer he received from the opposite side.

The issues were not important, a Turkish source told in.gr, the issue is that they had decided to take the step and nothing should threaten developments.

Three axes

Kyriakos Mitsotakis set three axes on which the next day in Greek-Turkish will be built. First, the political dialogue under the guidance of the two Foreign Ministers who “will raise the important, heavy geopolitical issues”, with the most important being the difference between the continental shelf and the EEZ.

The second axis included Confidence Building Measures, which can bear more fruit. And the third axis was the “positive agenda”.

The role of foreign ministers

Responding to a question from in.gr about the progress of the negotiations, Mitsotakis noted that “in the context of the political dialogue in which the exploratory orders fall, we are ready to examine the level of the discussions and in the context of the ministers, not only the representatives in exploratory mandates”.

He made it clear that “the problems were not solved by magic” and even if Athens does not forget what happened in the previous years, he says he is modestly optimistic that a new page can be started, without the two sides being in a constant state of tension. “Even if we cannot immediately or in the foreseeable future solve our one basic difference which is the demarcation of maritime zones” as the prime minister pointed out.

“Let’s not be in the red in terms of the activity of the Armed Forces” he emphasized to add that the path of the MoE, which informally gave concrete samples of writing and in the last months is something that can be exploited so that in the future “with mutual movements of goodwill of the will to defuse possible foci of future tension and to have an open channel of communication so that if a problem arises” and there is no risk of escalation.

And if Mitsotakis was talking pre-election about Thrace, Erdogan before Vilnius had raised the issue of Greek armaments with Turkey angry about the US agreement with the Greek government for F35s and Athens’ strong disagreement over the delivery of American F16s to Turkey – which was “marked” by the speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Congress.

Guns in holsters

In this meeting, however, the “weapons” did not come out of the drawers. The issue remained closed and Mitsotakis maintained that the F16 issue is a US-Turkish matter, although he noted that a NATO ally country cannot turn against another ally country. And the mind understood. “What the US is doing with Turkey is something that concerns us indirectly.

What I can say is that the position of the Congress on this matter is known, I do not want to say anything more.. I think it is common ground that the weapons given to NATO member countries should not be used against other countries of the Alliance ».

Awaiting news

Among news revealed was that Greece is waiting for positive messages from Washington on the reinforcement of the Armed Forces, with everyone’s mind going to the US response for the F-35.

With the “yes” that Tayyip Erdoğan said to the signing of the protocol for Sweden’s accession to NATO, he also opened Ankara’s door to the West, which he had given up some time ago. However, before his positive answer about Sweden, he made sure to also mention Euro-Turkish relations.

Mitsotakis was also in favor of the EU-Turkey approach, noting, however, that Athens and Nicosia are sitting at the European Council table and “it is obvious that the improvement of Turkey’s relations with the EU is definitely related to the view that the two countries have on progress which we can achieve”.