Athens wants the conditions for a quick – if possible – diplomatic mobilization to establish a direct channel between the leaders. Greece And Türkiyeuntil the obvious results are confirmed. Re-election of the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday is considered a given, and after June 25, it is expected that Athens will also have a stable government under him Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The temporarily outgoing – because of the interim government – prime minister reiterated his desire to meet with Mr. Erdogan as soon as possible, even citing a possible location, namely Vilnius, Lithuania, where the next meeting is scheduled. July 11-12 NATO summitwith the obvious main theme being Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war.

Its main goal Athens at this stage is to prevent the creation of direct two-way channels with Anchorto avoid mediation, which could be particularly “pressed”, given the interest of both Washington and Berlin, to ensure that the NATO front remains fragmented, and the war in Ukraine drags on with an unclear horizon.

In Athens, they believe that, despite the latest statements by Turkish officials and the rhetorical outburst of recent weeks (which is associated with the struggle for nationalist voters, who make up almost a third of the electorate in the neighboring country), after the elections and in Ankara to start a discussion about how a process of rapprochement with Greece, this time not on the basis of a forced truce after the February 6 earthquakes, but in a structured direction.

A direct connection with Erdogan is preferable to avoid the mediation of Washington or Berlin.

For Athens, the meeting of the two leaders is an important prerequisite, as it will signal a restart in a personal relationship that has been deteriorating since the appointment of Mr Mitsotakis as prime minister in July 2019 until recently.

The lack of personal contact with a leader like Erdogan, who is not some kind of alienated technocrat, is a problem for the Greek side, and this is well understood in the prime minister’s office. Once this goal is achieved, the next steps can be taken (research contacts, policy dialogue, positive agenda, etc.).

Until then, Turkey’s exercises, which were announced through the official channel, are observed from Athens, such as “Thalassolykos ’23”, which, however, will be completed before June 15, when the summer moratorium on major exercises in the Aegean begins, in application the Papoulias-Yılmaz memorandum, which in previous years has not been implemented, even when – in theory – the intention was declared for this to happen. Yesterday, a violation of air traffic rules by a Turkish UAV was recorded, which is more symbolic than meaningful, as it happened on the day of memory of squadron commander Konstantinos Iliakis.

Of course, in Athens there is always the open possibility that things will take a different turn. The election of an experienced diplomat, Vassilis Kaskarelis, as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alkiviades Stefanis (former Deputy Minister of National Defense and former head of the National Defense Service) as Acting Minister of National Defense is precisely aimed at the need for the presence in these two positions of persons with absolute knowledge of the mechanisms, procedures and the nature of the challenges in a particularly challenging period.