Mitsotakis to visit Ankara as Turkish-Greek ties thaw

GREEK premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis yesterday said he intends to visit Ankara this May as part of the diplomatic thaw between the two Aegean neighbors, which moved into a new chapter with a visit by President Tayyip Erdoğan to Greece in December.

“I think there is also a sincere willingness from the Turkish leadership for us to be able to bridge our differences and avoid tensions at least,” Mitsotakis said in a televised interview with Greece’s Skai TV.

The deputy foreign ministers of both sides met in Ankara on Monday for a political dialogue and reiterated their commitment to further strengthening the positive atmosphere in accordance with the Athens Declaration signed during Erdoğan’s visit.

Greece and Türkiye, both NATO members, have long been at odds over issues including where their continental shelves start and end, energy resources, flights over the Aegean Sea, and policy toward the ethnically divided island of Cyprus.

They have taken high-profile steps to improve their ties in recent years, notably since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

During Erdoğan’s visit to Greece three months ago, they agreed to boost trade, keep communication channels open, seek military confidence-building measures to reduce tension and work on issues that have kept them apart, notably in the Aegean Sea.

While official statements have been positive, the issues are longstanding and deep-rooted. Neither side expects the process to be without turbulence, particularly in the Aegean, where Turkish and Greek jets often scuffled until recently.

Earlier in January, Ankara and Athens reached respective deals with Washington for fighter jets, raising concerns about fresh skirmishes in the region.

Ankara has repeatedly warned its neighbor against entering an arms race with Türkiye, particularly on building a military presence on the disputed Aegean islands since the 1960s, in violation of postwar treaties.

Greece’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and the upping of defense budgets are meant to counter the protection of Turkish interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece says it needs to defend the islands against a potential attack from Türkiye, but Turkish officials said continued militarization of the islands could lead to Ankara questioning their ownership.

For Mitsotakis, the demarcation of the continental shelf and economic exclusive zone is the only “difference” between the countries, but even if the issue isn’t resolved, Türkiye and Greece “should be able to coexist and focus on a positive agenda.”

Any normalization of relations would ease tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and contribute to regional stability. Southern Mediterranean nations Libya and Egypt are also parties to the issue of continental shelves.

In 2020, Greece and Egypt unilaterally inked a maritime deal of EEZ in the region, angering Libya and Türkiye as Ankara lambasted the move as a violation of Türkiye’s rights in the Eastern Mediterranean and declared as “null and void.”

Since 2022, Ankara and Libya’s Tripoli government have been in effect negotiating a deal on energy exploration in an exclusive economic zone, which Türkiye and a previous Tripoli government agreed on in 2019.