The devastating earthquakes in Athens and Nicomedia in the summer of 1999 were the impetus for normalization Greek-Turkish relationsafter a fairly long period of particularly heightened tensions between the two countries.

Just a few months before earthquakesin January of that year, these relations reached a new climax when Turkish Massachusetts Institute of Technology kidnapped the founder of the Kurdish organization PKK, Abdullah Ocalanfrom Nairobi, where he resided at the Greek Embassy, ​​which led to the resignation of then Foreign Minister Theodore Pagalos and his replacement by George Papandreou.

Also, her shadow 1996 Imiya crisis continued to define Greek-Turkish relations, greatly exacerbating the climate that had already formed after decades of tension from Turkish invasion of Cyprus (probably in 1987).

However, when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Nicomedia in August 1999, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, Greece was one of the first countries to offer assistance. Members of EMAK participated in the rescue efforts and the Greek people collected medicines and emergency supplies for the earthquake victims. A few weeks later, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake also struck the Greek capital, killing 143 people.

Turkey, which saw the Greeks abandon the traditional competitive relationship between the two countries, retaliated and sent rescue teams as well.

Apart from the awareness of the public as well as the media of each country, the earthquakes were also the latest push after various previous efforts towards diplomatic normalization.

Yes, in December 1999. Helsinki European Council, Greece has adopted a new approach to the prospects for Turkey’s accession to the European Union. He did not prevent this possibility, but used it both to start negotiations to resolve bilateral disputes, mainly in matters of sovereignty, and to achieve independence of the process of accession of Cyprus from the solution of the Cyprus issue. .

The improvement in Greek-Turkish relations was radical. George Papandreou stepped up his predecessor’s efforts and forged a close relationship with his Turkish counterpart, Ismail Tsem, culminating in the Greek minister’s much-discussed zeybeki in June 2001.

At the institutional level, during this period, namely in the spring of 2002, exploratory contacts were established between Greece and Turkey, which at that time confirmed how radically relations between the two countries had changed in a very limited period of time. .