Türkiye eyes a new stage in ties with Greece following the election victories of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Greece and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Türkiye and the Turkish leader has expressed hope for better ties. However, he was also cautious against Greek moves in the Aegean.
Answering a question posed by reporters on the future of Turkish-Greek relations, Erdoğan was quoted as saying on Friday that he believed they could overcome hurdles in terms of relations but warned Greece against “provocations.”
He said he had a frank discussion with Mitsotakis on the armament of Greece’s Aegean islands close to the Turkish coast and the Turkish foreign minister also had similar discussions with his Greek counterpart.
“Certainly, the (armament) issue is not entirely the work of Greece. They have friends in the White House, a lobby, that provokes Greece to that extent. This provocation led to undesirable results from time to time. (Foreign Minister) Hakan Fidan is talking to his counterpart and (chief presidential adviser) Akif Çağatay Kılıç is engaged in talks with Mitsotakis’ special representative. These contacts will transform relations,” he said.
Türkiye has repeatedly protested what it called provocative actions and rhetoric by Greece in the region in recent years, including arming islands near Turkish shores that are demilitarized under treaty obligations.
With Mitsotakis at the helm, Greece recently signed multiple major arms deals, including drones and missiles from Israel, Rafale jets from France, and upgrades to its F-16 fleet from the U.S. Athens also approached Washington for the potential purchase of at least 20 F-35 stealth fighter jets, and Berlin for an update to its Leopard 2 tank fleet and purchases of Lynx armored vehicles.
Athens counters that the Aegean islands, which have been garrisoned for decades and lie within close striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet, cannot be left undefended.
Starting from the Treaty of London in 1913, the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands was restricted and their demilitarized status was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Lausanne pact established a political balance between the two countries by harmonizing vital interests, including those in the Aegean. The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which ceded the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece, also confirmed their demilitarized status. Since the 1960s, 21 of the 23 islands with non-military status have been armed by Greece. Among the armed islands are Crete, Lemnos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes and Lesbos. Determined not to compromise on its rights and interests, Ankara says it will maintain its stance on the agenda by drawing attention to the fact that the islands, which should have non-military status, have been armed. Besides the Lausanne and Paris agreements, Greece is acting against international law by keeping armed forces stationed in the eastern Aegean islands, including the six-state decisions of 1914 and another agreement signed in 1932.
The president said that Türkiye became an important actor in the regional and international community. "Our country stands out with its stable administration and policies. Türkiye, which places humanity at the center of every issue and preserves humanitarian dignity, is the only country that can establish friendly ties with the West, Middle East, Far East, African and Arab countries at the same time. We always pursued a principled and decisive foreign policy. We always advocated resolution of disputes and strengthening ties with other countries," he said.
Answering a question if Türkiye was "restoring" ties with the West in light of recent developments, Erdoğan said strengthening ties and winning new friends were "not restoration."
"Turkish foreign policy has always prioritized national interests. It was such in the past and will be such in the future. We are simply in the beginning of a new era for countries which have been our friends and our prospective friends," he stressed.
Erdoğan and Mitsotakis held a rare in-person meeting earlier this month on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania and agreed to build on the “positive momentum” forged after this year’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye.
Two leaders held talks in a “good atmosphere,” according to the Turkish side. The two leaders agreed it is “to the benefit of both countries that the positive climate that emerged in bilateral relations in recent months has continuity and consistency,” a statement by Ankara said. According to the Turkish Presidency's Directorate of Communications, the neighbors will activate multiple communication channels in the coming period and hold the next meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council in Greece's Thessaloniki in the fall.
Mitsotakis echoed similar sentiments when he talked to the press a day earlier. “I hope and look forward to building on this positive climate and making some important steps of progress,” he said. “As I have said many times, we are not condemned to live in a constant climate of tension with Türkiye.”
The two uneasy NATO allies have long feuded over maritime borders and energy exploration rights in disputed parts of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. “We obviously have significant differences,” said Mitsotakis. “But we can agree ... on a road map so that we can resolve our most important geopolitical difference, the delimitation of maritime zones, namely exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Türkiye has disputed areas of potential gas reserves claimed by Greece in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It’s also where Greece says it’s seeking to start a search for offshore oil and gas reserves. Türkiye claims much of where several sizable offshore natural gas deposits have been discovered.
Another key issue at the heart of Greek-Turkish tensions is the extent of the continental shelf – and by extension, Greek sovereign territory – of Greek islands near Türkiye’s coastline in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Türkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the region, doesn’t recognize that Greek islands near its borders have a continental shelf and rejects the maritime boundary claims of Greece.
The Turkish president had hosted a March 2022 meeting with Mitsotakis in Istanbul, but the relationship rapidly soured in the following months. Later, Erdoğan accused Greece of arming Aegean islands meant to remain demilitarized and warned that Türkiye’s armed forces could “come overnight” and “do what is necessary.”
Greece too often accuses NATO ally Türkiye of stepping up hostility in the Eastern Mediterranean over their outstanding conflicts, which also include overlapping claims over their airspace, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, irregular migration and the status of the Aegean islands.
At their last encounter in Prague in October, the pair had a verbal spat when Erdoğan reportedly said Athens was raising tension in the region with provocative actions. Erdoğan at the time claimed that Mitsotakis had stormed out of the official dinner of an informal European summit. But the rhetoric was toned down in February when Greece sent aid and rescue teams in the immediate wake of a massive earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.
Greece’s then-Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was also the first European minister to visit Türkiye after the quake. What is known in the two nations as “earthquake diplomacy” also came into play in 1999 when two deadly quakes struck Türkiye and Greece within a month of each other. It brought about a thaw in relations just three years after the NATO allies had nearly gone to war over an uninhabited islet in the Aegean Sea.
