Greek, Turkish foreign ministers to meet on April 14
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has accepted an invitation by his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to meet in Ankara on April 14, according to diplomatic sources.
Dendias, however, made it clear that his visit will be conditional on “the right climate,” meaning the absence of provocations on the Turkish side, such as sending “research vessels” into contested East Mediterranean waters.
For Cavusoglu, the meeting is a given and, as he said on Wednesday, he views it as preliminary to a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“We will hold a meeting at the foreign ministers level in the coming period,” Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara. “We believe it is beneficial for these talks to be at the level of leaders as well, so when Nikos Dendias comes to Ankara, we will also discuss the meeting of our President Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis,” he said, according to the Turkish Daily Sabah. He added that he will also visit Greece in the near future.
As for the exploratory talks between the two countries, the 62nd round of which took place in Athens this week, Cavusoglu said the bilateral meetings will continue in the following period.
On Wednesday, diplomats of both countries discussed issues of common interest, such as the pandemic and migration, but also issues presented by Turkey, such as FETO, the organization of supporters of Erdogan opponent Fethullah Gullen, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization but Greece does not, and the Turkish-speaking Muslim minority in Greece’s northeastern province of Thrace.
