For their most difficult encounter since December 2023, when the Athens Declaration was signed, the leaders of Greece and Turkey are being prepared, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Recep Tayyip Erdogannext Tuesday on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly.
After a time when, without the problems being resolved, a relatively mild climate had been restored that helped maintain the “calm waters” in the Aegean, the climate has been burdened in recent months, as the differences have been “unfolded” again, this time on the field.
Their meeting is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, New York Timeon an extremely “loaded” day, as the US President will be speaking at the start of the General Assembly Donald Trumpwho will later list the established reception of the transatlantic alliance. There was already a coordination problem, as the Turkish president will remain in New York from September 21 to September 24 and Kyriakos Mitsotakis from 23 to 26, when his speech is scheduled to be scheduled. General meeting. The fact that the appointment was finally closed under these circumstances shows, of course, that perhaps for different reasons, both leaders wanted this meeting to take place.
Greek-Turkey positions
The Greek side insists that it is useful to talk and maintain communication channels, even if it is obvious that you disagree. And both Athens and Ankara want to send the message that the approach process is alive, which helps to maintain the “calm water”, but at the same time serves Turkey’s attempt to approach the EU. But also the US.
The meeting takes place in a highly burdened international environment as the War in Ukraine but also the Gaza war have left a heavy footprint.
Erdogan, at this general assembly, wants to be recorded as the leader who expresses not only the Muslim world but also the world public opinion and does not hesitate or fear to support the Palestinians and to emerge as Israel’s greatest and hardest critic. And without hiding, of course, his pursuit of converting the Turkeydespite being a member of NATOin a regional force that can step in both the West and the East.
In this arrogant spirit, the Turkish president also faces the Greek -Turkish, but also finding that both relations with Greece and the Cyprus issue influence these ambitions.
In Greek -Turkish The situation has deteriorated, as the approach process has no longer led to results in resolving the dispute for the delineation of EEZ/continental shelf and the issues that are highlighted.
Athens, however, As he repeated several times lately by the Prime Minister himselfwithout hallucinations, it proceeds with an unprecedented equipment program to enhance its deterrent capacity, which at the same time enhances its negotiating power.
The differences
The two countries’ confrontation over the maps of Marine spatial planning but also for the Sea parks It highlighted the whole context of differences in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. And he confirmed Turkey’s approaches to the boundaries, which leave no room for optimism to achieve even little progress in this chapter. And if this controversy is still at maps and announcements, this is not the case with the cable investigation case Crete – Cyprus Electric Interconnection (GSI).
This case, because it has already evolved into the field, is an open wound in Greek -Turkish relations, as it is not just a cable, but it is directly linked to Greece’s ability and determination to exercise its legal sovereign rights not in a “claimed area” but within the demarcation.
Greece’s move licensing plots south of Crete with ‘vehicle’ the entrance of American Chevronchallenging the Libyan side of the Turkish Memorandum, has brought the two countries to an underground competition, as Athens has so far persuaded Benghazi not to ratify the Memorandum and Tripoli to come to talks on the EEZ demarcation, Turkish diplomacy is now on the direction.
The new “thorn” of the Safe program
In recent weeks, another serious thorn has been added to bilateral relations, which may be the most annoying for Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The express commitment of Athens and the Prime Minister’s personally that it will not join the program SAFE The $ 150 billion for Europe’s pancake, a country that threatens the Member States. And he has even stated that he will raise the issue of Casus Belli’s removal to the Turkish president.
Turkey and Erdogan, who boast about the achievements of the Turkish defense industry, have also invested politically at Turkey’s entry into this program, essentially wanting to impose a “special relationship” with Europe, where Turkey would have rights and benefits without obligations. Veto from Athens and Cyprus is obviously to greatly burden relationships.
At a time when Turkey has begun a campaign against the measures taken by Cyprus for its defense (with the Israeli Barak missiles) and pro -government media and analysts trigger the climate, arguing that Israel with its “allies”.
It has also been recorded from Athens that the time was selected by Ankara shortly before the planned meeting of the two leaders, to issue NAVTEX for Piri Reis’s scientific research challenging the area of Greek Navtex and indirectly the potential Greek continental shelf. The Rey It was still in the port of Smyrna, but NAVTEX is valid until September 25th…
And of course extremely difficult time will be when the conversation comes to the Gauzeas Greece has held a balanced stance, which was also reflected in its stance on the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, while Erdogan is out of control when he turns against Israel, even considering those who do not follow his own line as “coincidences”.
The meeting of the Greek Prime Minister with the Turkish president will be a difficult encounter from the old ones that will test the strength of the relationships so that such a meeting can be called truths without leading to ruptures and tensions.