Erdogan starts Greek visit with border demand

THE first official visit by a Turkish president to Greece in six decades got off to a tense start yesterday after he said the countries needed to reassess their border and demanded the extradition of suspected coup plotters.

Uneasy allies in Nato and at odds over a host of issues from ethnically split Cyprus to air space, the two set diplomatic niceties aside after remarks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Greek media that a treaty defining their borders may need to be reviewed.

“The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne has no flaws, it does not need to be reviewed, or to be updated,” Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Greek president, responded.

Mr Erdogan, who is in Athens, yesterday demanded the extradition of suspected coup plotters from Greece, referring to eight soldiers who flew to northern Greece during the failed putsch last year to claim asylum. Ankara’s demand has been rejected by Greek courts on the grounds they could not be guaranteed a fair trial in Turkey.