Bağiş heralds new era in bilateral relations between Greece, Turkey

Bağış was speaking to Turkish reporters following his Thursday talks with Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is also currently handling his government’s foreign affairs, Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas and former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis during an official visit to the Greek capital.

All of these meetings had a “positive atmosphere,” Bağış said, according to the Anatolia news agency, while also touching upon a letter recently sent by prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Papandreou.

Erdoğan offered to have a high-level consultancy meeting to discuss bilateral problems between the two countries, he added.

According to a statement released by the Prime Ministry Press Office on Wednesday, in his letter Erdoğan highlighted his expectation for an acceleration in the two countries’ bilateral cooperation on the occasion of the new government in Athens. The Turkish government has the will to improve relations with Greece in all fields and is ready to deal with all current issues, Erdoğan told Papandreou, while also offering a series of proposals for creating new cooperation opportunities within this framework, the office said, without elaborating on the content of the proposals.

Bağış, speaking with Turkish daily ne-wspaper Hürriyet while in Athens, elaborated on those proposals. Recalling Ankara’s support and encouragement of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to reach a resolution in the ongoing reunification talks with Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias, Erdoğan requested the Papandreou administration to do the same vis-à-vis the Christofias leadership saying such approaches would eventually help reach a resolution, Bağış told Hürriyet’s Fatih Çekirge.

“We are ready for the solution of the Aegean issue. Turkey has been assuming a zero-problem policy with its neighbors. Within this framework, I offer establishing together a structure that will bring our related ministers together for the solution of the Aegean issue,” Bağış quoted the letter as saying, according to Hürriyet.

The daily also reported that Papandreou positively approached Erdoğan’s proposal to have a joint ministerial mechanism for resolving the Aegean issue, while pledging his support and encouragement to Greek Cypriot leadership to reach a resolution of the Cyprus issue. Papandreou told Bağış that he would like to meet with Erdoğan before a key EU summit in December, during which leaders of the EU countries must decide what to do about Turkey’s failure to implement its signed obligation to open its ports to Greek Cypriot air and sea traffic, Hürriyet also said.

Ankara apparently considers Papandreou’s term in office an opportunity for a new high-level strategic relationship, as Papandreou championed rapprochement between Greece and Turkey when he served as foreign minister between 1999 and 2004. Last month, he paid his first foreign trip to Turkey on the occasion of an informal meeting of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP), hosted by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

A rapprochement between Ankara and Athens actually started long before Turkey’s efforts to normalize its relations with Syria, Iraq and Armenia. The two countries came to the brink of war three times between 1974 and 1996 over Aegean borders and the divided island country of Cyprus.

The rapprochement between the Turkish and Greek peoples after the devastating earthquakes each country suffered in 1999 provided another incentive to intensify diplomatic efforts for the improvement of bilateral relations. But occasional accusations of airspace and territorial water violations as well as the Cyprus issue continue to mar relations.

In 2002 Greek and Turkish diplomats began exploratory talks on their disputes. Business deals have steadily increased and include a pipeline link that will be used to carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Western Europe. But the Aegean has remained a source of tension.

Another issue has been illegal immigration. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants sneak into Greece each year, many heading to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. Greece has signed an agreement with Turkey under which it can send back illegal immigrants who enter from Turkey, but Greece says the agreement is often not enforced.