Between Ankara and Athens, everything contributes to the possibility of a new beginning. Just re-elected, the two leaders – Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kyriakos Mitsotakis – indeed took advantage of their joint presence in Vilnius, Lithuania, to talk for 30 minutes, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, which ended this Tuesday.
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With our correspondent in Athens, Joel Bronner
Sign of a not very cordial understanding, it has been 16 months since the two neighboring leaders, Greek and Turkish, had not met. Both freshly re-elected, the two leaders however intend to leave on a basis that appears to be more peaceful than during their previous mandate.
At the same time, the new Defense Ministers of the two countries, like those of Foreign Affairs, also met. After several episodes of tension between Greece and Turkey, the Greek Prime Minister is now talking about initiating a new roadmap.
In terms of tensions, 2020 marked a first turning point. During the winter, the Turkish President declared open the borders to Greece, a crowd of migrants and asylum seekers then gathered at the land border, which Athens has locked down. In the summer, then, a Turkish exploration vessel searching for gas in the Mediterranean came close to sparking a conflict between the two countries.
Relations seem to ease in March 2022 when the two leaders meet in Istanbul. But, a speech by Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Washington, three months later – criticism of Turkish policy – provoked the ire of Ankara. Erdogan then uses a bellicose tone and notably threatens to invade a Greek island unexpectedly.
It took a deadly earthquake in Turkey last February – where Athens provided assistance – for the two countries to gradually find the path of dialogue, which led them to Vilnius.