Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is visiting Athens on Friday to try to build new-found trust with his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis as the two neighbors try to ease tensions.

Fidan will meet Gerapetritis as part of a new diplomatic push aimed at resolving complex and long-standing conflicts. These include volatile disputes over maritime borders that have severely strained relations between the two NATO members for decades.

“Step by step, we have reached a level of trust that allows us to discuss problems sincerely and prevent crises,” Gerapetritis said in an interview published Thursday by Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.

In an interview with a Greek daily on Thursday, Fidan also welcomed the improvement in relations and said Turkey’s main mission was to put aside historical differences between the two sides in an era of new challenges requiring the regional unit.

He said Turkey’s vision was to transform the Aegean Sea, dividing two countries, “into a sea of ​​peace.”

The minister said critics of the rapprochement should know that the national interests of Ankara and Athens can only be achieved through friendship and cooperation. “Of course, to achieve this we must act realistically and make precise diagnoses of our problems,” he added.

Friday’s meetings follow a series of high-level talks between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as part of a reparations initiative launched last year.

The delimitation of maritime borders is not the only problem, however.

Officials in Athens are expected to raise concerns over rising illegal immigration as Greece has seen a surge in arrivals. Ankara often accuses Athens of pushing back irregular immigrants crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkish shores.

And despite disagreements over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the two foreign ministers are also expected to explore ways to improve regional stability.

They will also likely discuss steps to find a solution to the decades-old division of Cyprus, in which they are the guarantors of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot states.

The talks will help set the stage for a high-level Greek-Turkish cooperation council planned for early 2025 in Ankara, Türkiye.

The Sabah Daily News Bulletin

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