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Greece’s prime minister stated Monday that his authorities needs to take full benefit of an bettering political local weather with neighboring Turkey with a purpose to enhance bilateral relations regardless of a string of decades-old disputes.
However Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated that did not imply Turkey had “considerably modified” its stance on key variations between the 2 nations and should “decisively abandon its aggressive and illegal conduct” towards Greece’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Turkey and Greece stay at odds over maritime boundaries within the jap Mediterranean, a dispute that impacts irregular migration into the European Union, mineral rights and the projection of army energy.
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Mitsotakis stated that he agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan throughout a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12 to provoke new “strains of communication” and to take care of “a interval of calm.”
Excessive-level talks between the 2 nations are anticipated to happen within the Greek metropolis of Thessaloniki later this yr.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis seems at a press convention with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, not pictured, Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, July 31, 2023. (Yiannis Kourtoglou Pool by way of AP)
Nonetheless, the Greek prime minister stated that Erdogan’s outreach to the EU could not come on the expense of efforts to heal practically half a century of ethnic division in Cyprus, which has been break up into separate Greek and Turkish entities since 1974.
Talking after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Mitsotakis stated that he instructed Erdogan that improved European-Turkish ties could not exclude a Cyprus peace accord and that the problem could not be “left by the wayside.”
Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriots have insisted on a two-state resolution since July 2017 when the newest spherical of U.N.-facilitated peace talks collapsed.
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That place overturned a long-standing settlement sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council in quite a few resolutions that any peace deal would intention for a reunified Cyprus as a federation made up of Greek- and Turkish-speaking zones.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Solely Turkey acknowledges a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence within the island’s northern third, the place greater than 35,000 Turkish troops are stationed.
On Friday, Turkish Cypriot chief Ersin Tatar repeated that peace talks might resume provided that Greek Cypriots acknowledged the Turkish Cypriots’ “sovereign equality.”
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Christodoulides stated Monday that any enchancment in European-Turkish relations must be primarily based on reciprocal motion by Turkey, including that the EU prioritizes a Cyprus peace deal consistent with U.N. resolutions.
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