Turkey “has everything to gain if it gets closer to Greece, Europe and the West,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview published Sunday in the daily Kathimerini newspaper, in the context of election monitoring in the neighboring country. with great interest in Greece, reports AFP.

“We are open to dialogue to build a positive agenda that will be of interest to all of us in the areas of trade, culture and the environment,” said Mitsotakis, who is running for a second term as prime minister after the legislative elections. meetings on Sunday. upcoming elections

“But we are not naive (…) To really improve our relations, Turkey must agree to resolve our differences on the basis of international law and maritime law,” he added.

During a televised debate on Wednesday, Mitsotakis criticized Ankara’s strategy for obtaining energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In the summer of 2020, the sending of a Turkish vessel to explore for hydrocarbons near the Greek islands created serious tension between the two neighbors.

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Erdogan accused Greece of “occupying” islands in the Aegean Sea

Last year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Greece, Turkey’s NATO ally, of “occupying” the Aegean islands, whose status was established in post-World War II treaties, and warned that the Turkish army could “come at night” to “do the necessary “. “.

After months of escalating tensions, the earthquake that devastated southeastern Turkey in February led to a rapprochement between Athens and Ankara.

On Sunday, Mitsotakis said he was “open to dialogue with the leader elected by the citizens of Turkey, whoever he is.”

Erdogan’s main opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu (a social democrat backed by a broad coalition), also assured the Kathimerini newspaper that he wants “the Aegean Sea to become a zone of peace.”

“We want our relations with Greece to develop in a friendly way,” he added.

All media in Greece are tied to the elections in Turkey. According to the private TV channel Skai, “these elections in Turkey are the most important” in recent decades.

The center-right daily Ta Nea wrote that “the change of the head of state does not necessarily mean strategic changes, but there is a chance to resume dialogue.” (Agerpress)