Greek PM says ready to meet Erdogan
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The Greek PM says that he expects to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sometime in the future.
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that he is ready to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan despite the latter's rhetoric.
Erdogan had accused the Greek Prime Minister of violating previously reached agreements and stated that he no longer recognizes Mistokias as a politician, so he intends "neither to meet him nor to have anything to do with him."
According to the Turkish President, the two had agreed during a meeting with Mitsotakis not to involve third parties in their bilateral relations, but Athens broke that promise.
Mitsotakis expects to meet Erdogan in the future
In an interview with the state broadcaster ERT, Mitsotakis indicated that "I would like to remind that he said the same thing after the Evros incidents [undocumented migrant issue]. He said he will not meet with me. I expect that we will meet sometime in the future. And we need to meet and we need to talk."
The Greek Prime Minister pointed out that he "said to President Erdogan, as part of resolving our differences we must agree on the points we disagree about."
Greece said that it is prepared to discuss with Turkey only maritime zones delimitation. Turkey sets forward other issues, for instance, it does not recognize the 10-mile air zone around the Greek islands and constantly raises the question of the Turkish national minority in Greece.
Growing tensions between Ankara and Athens
Ankara also demands the demilitarization of the Aegean islands, arguing that Greece's military presence is a violation of long-standing international treaties and this calls into question the sovereignty of the islands.
Turkey has sent a letter to the UN, in which it underscored the need to comply with the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty on the demilitarization of islands in the Aegean Sea.
Mitsotakis had called Turkey's claims "completely absurd" as they "question Greek sovereignty over the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea."
Tensions have been growing between Greece and Turkey in recent years because of territorial disputes. The two countries are struggling to delineate maritime zones.
