After a meeting in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras have promised to expand their often crisis-ridden relations.
„Even if there are occasional adverse situations in our bilateral relations, we have found ways to make amends quickly,“ Erdogan said yesterday evening at a press conference. Tsipras spoke of an „effective and honest meeting“. It was important to create a climate of cooperation in the Aegean. One must break the „vicious circle of crises“.
Erdogan and Tsipras talked about Gülen
According to Erdogan, the talks also dealt with the fight against terrorism. Greece should not become a safe haven for terrorist organizations like the PKK and Fetö, he warned. With this remark, he alluded to eight alleged complicit in the coup attempt of 2016, who had fled to Greece. The government blames the preacher Fethullah Gülen’s move for the coup, which truncates it to Fetö. Erdogan demands the extradition of the eight military.
Apparently, he had not come very far with it. Tsipras pointed out that the Greek judiciary had made decisions that every constitutional state must respect. Three of the soldiers have been granted asylum so far, for others it is expected.
Priority for Greece is the intensification of cooperation to combat the smuggling gangs, said Tspiras. Again and again, migrants from Turkey try to cross over to Greece. On the subject of the divided island state of Cyprus, there should be an „action plan“ before further talks.
