On a mission to maintain calm in order for Greece and Turkey to reach a compromise for a joint appeal to The Hague, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis was in Ankara as it is characteristic that while the Greek minister referred to the minorities living in the two countries, describing them as a bridge of communication, the former head of MIT spoke "to the face" of the head of Greek diplomacy about his "expatriates" in Greece: "We have implemented several positive practices regarding the issue of the problems of minorities in our country as well. We expect the same constructive approach for our expatriates. We attach great importance to the protection of our cultural heritage in Greece. We are ready to provide support for the restoration of Ottoman monuments. We underlined that we can cooperate on this issue."
Everyone can remember a few months ago when the then Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said something that did not fit the ears of the then Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and of course Greece's standing positions, he received the answer he needed and even in Ankara...
Turkish media report Hakan Fidan's statements as follows:
"We are ready to continue the dialogue with neighboring Greece without preconditions and to develop our relations in all areas on the basis of common interests. We can solve our problems with respect to mutual rights and interests on the basis of international law," Hakan Fidan said.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis held a joint press conference after their meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Fidan said that he and his Greek counterpart comprehensively assessed the problems regarding the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean with his Greek counterpart.
"We have differences of opinion on the Aegean. We have discussed them in the consultative talks in the past. We talked about resuming the process in the near future. We agreed to introduce new approaches to solving the problems," he said.
The issue of illegal migration should be an area of cooperation and not competition, we do not want to see more loss of lives in the Aegean, the Turkish foreign minister stressed.
Fidan said the problems of expatriates living in Greece was another important topic of discussion on the agenda of the talks.
The minister said the following:
"We have implemented several positive practices regarding the issue of the problems of minorities in our country as well. We expect the same constructive approach for our expatriates. We attach great importance to the protection of our cultural heritage in Greece. We are ready to provide support for the restoration of Ottoman monuments. We underlined that we can cooperate on this issue.
Today, we also discussed regional issues. We assessed developments in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. We reiterated our expectations of the European Union. We are ready to continue the dialogue with neighbouring Greece without preconditions and to develop our relations in all areas on the basis of common interests. We can solve our problems with respect for mutual rights and interests on the basis of international law."
For his part, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said that meetings on the Confidence Building Measures will start in the near future.
Gerapetritis also said that they agreed to continue the positive agenda."
