Greece & Turkey held secret talks in Belgium to normalize relations
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Bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey have been affected by tensions for years.
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The German mission to the European Union.
Germany has hosted a secret meeting in Belgium between top foreign policy advisors to the leaders of Greece and Turkey to discuss the normalization of bilateral relations, which gave been affected by years of tension, according to Greek media.
On December 16, Greece's Anna-Maria Bura met with Turkey's Ibrahim Kali, in the presence of Jens Ploetner, the German Chancellor's foreign policy advisor.
The meeting was carried out in the German mission to the European Union without any preconditions from both sides, according to the report.
At several instances since 2020, Ankara and Athens have been head-to-head, and faced the risk of armed conflict over territorial claims in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Greek-Turkish divide in Cyprus, and the delimitation of maritime borders.
In violation of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey repeatedly accused Greece of deploying weapons to the Aegean islands in the Eastern Mediterranean. In August this year, Greece used S-300 air defense systems to lock a Turkish F-16 performing a reconnaissance mission near Rhodes.
In October, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Turkish claims to sovereignty over Greek islands in his visit to Athens. Scholz said, as quoted by Greek daily Ta Nea, that it was "not acceptable" for a NATO member to question the sovereignty of another member.
He also slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his senior officials for making "more or less veiled military threats" to Greece in recent months.
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for years over maritime borders and energy exploration rights in the Aegean and east Mediterranean seas.
Scholz urged both countries to resolve their differences "through dialogue and on the basis of international law".
Turkey's president has recently accused Greece of "occupying" the Aegean islands, whose status was determined by treaties signed following World War I. Simultaneously, Athens accused Turkey of carrying out hundreds of illegal military sorties over the islands.
