IN elections and the summer season in “calm waters” continues Greek-Turkish relationsas all the diplomatic initiatives of recent days have shown.

Yesterday the foreign ministers Nikos Dendias And Mevlut Cavusoglu met on the sidelines of the Turkish-Syrian donor conference in Brussels, where they declared mutual support in the campaigns that each country is conducting to obtain temporary positions in international organizations: Ankara agreed to vote for the candidacy of Greece as a non-permanent member United Nations Security Council (SC) and Athens in return will support the Turkish candidacy for the post of Secretary General International Maritime Organization (IMO).

These are gestures of little essential importance (since the promotion of Greece as a non-permanent member of the UN for the period 2025-26 is almost a given, as it has been until now for two positions in the geographical area to which our third country has not descended), but has a huge symbolic meaning, as it follows a period of many years and ever-increasing tension.

Intensive Discussions

Discussions between Mr. Dendiash and Mr. Cavusoglu, as well as at the official level on specific issues, have been intense and in extreme secrecy over the previous three weeks, which is why yesterday’s meeting of the two ministers (without the presence of third parties) in Brussels, it lasted only 20 minutes.

The discussions took place with the full knowledge of the two leaders, Kyriakou Mitsotakis And Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It is known that this kind of symbolic, but important at this stage, contacts are always welcomed by Washington.

Conditions are being created for the elections in the two countries and the summer period to proceed “in calm water.”

After the meeting, Mr. Dendias thanked his colleague for the Turkish authorities’ decision to allow the extradition of the father of one of the victims of the Tempe tragedy to Greece.

Invitation

Mr. Tsavusoglu, for his part, thanked the Greek government for its support and solidarity after the earthquakes, recalling the visit of Mr. Dendias to the Hatay region. “President Erdogan and we moved the prisoner without hesitation when his son, a train driver, was killed. This is a sign of trust,” commented Mr. Cavusoglu, who also stated that he was “very happy that we have a much better atmosphere in our relations.”

He also sent an invitation to Mr. Dendias to visit her. Turkey and see you again soon.

A little earlier, before meeting with his Greek counterpart, speaking to reporters, Mr. Cavusoglu also touched upon the recent results of his contacts with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Sukri, during which some questions were raised from Cairo regarding definition of sea zones. “The maritime jurisdiction agreement we have with Libya is not against Egypt. Egypt’s agreement with Greece is also not against us. In this agreement, the Egyptian side respected the boundaries of our continental shelf even when relations were cold.” It is worth noting that indeed the agreement between Greece and Egypt does not reach a critical point to the east beyond the 28th meridian, where Turkey has marked the “red lines”, a fact that “TO” was brought up on time.

As for the Greek-Turkish contacts, Mr. Tsavousoglu noted that “certain issues were discussed during the preliminary contacts, but no agreement was reached, and therefore the problems continue.” He added that after the restoration of relations with Israel and Egypt, Turkey does not demand a severance of relations with other countries, obviously referring to Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. “However, if there is some cooperation, we will not allow Turkey’s rights to be violated. Even if they cooperate with us, it is about a fair distribution,” Mr. Cavusoglu added.