Crisis prompts Mitsotakis, Erdogan call
As war in Israel and Gaza rages, two leaders discuss regional stability and security
Against the backdrop of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked on the telephone on Monday to discuss regional stability and security, moving beyond purely Greek-Turkish issues.
The two leaders got in touch at Mitsotakis’ suggestion to express their concerns about the Middle East situation in the wake of the Hamas terrorist strike and Israel’s retaliation. All major actors in the region, including the Americans, who have assumed the most active role, have sought to prevent an uncontrolled escalation in recent days, as have Athens and Ankara. This broadening of the agenda of contacts between Mitsotakis and Erdogan is also viewed as evidence of a much better level of communication between the two.
It also has a substantial character. If the conflict is perpetuated, the disruption of stability in the region will have direct or indirect consequences for the security of both countries. What’s more, a prolonged war will create conditions for migration flows from Gaza and existing refugee camps in countries neighboring Israel, such as Jordan.
Based on everything that was leaked from both sides, the conversation was held with the same rationale as the one with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and was exclusively devoted to the situation in the Middle East. According to these official leaks, the two men did not talk about the Greek-Turkish contacts between the deputy foreign ministries of the two countries on Monday and Tuesday (positive agenda and political consultations).
Mitsotakis reportedly stressed the need to avoid a humanitarian crisis and the threat to regional stability. For his part, Erdogan was quoted as saying that Turkey has made every effort to end the conflict, which could have extremely negative consequences on a regional and global scale. In addition, the Turkish president said that the countries in the region should make efforts to stop the conflict and the human rights violations. He said measures are needed as soon as possible to reduce reactions, not increase them.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Ministers Alexandra Papadopoulou of Greece and Burak Akcapar of Turkey will hold talks on Tuesday on the main bilateral differences. On Monday, Akcapar met with Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Costas Fragogoyannis ahead of the High-Level Cooperation Council in December in Thessaloniki.
