Turkey, Greece inch closer to Aegean talks, but may disagree on starting point
An increasingly unstable eastern Mediterranean forces Turkey and Greece to start negotiations to solve their disagreements over sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea, though not without compromise.
ANKARA — Turkey and Greece are inching closer to starting talks to solve their historical disagreements over sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea, but the need for a compromise regarding the format of the talks appears to remain an obstacle.
Greece and Turkey will survey conditions to see whether they are ready to initiate talks to demarcate maritime zones, Greece's foreign minister, Giorgos Gerapetritis, said Tuesday. His remarks came after a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York earlier the same day and amid a diplomatic reset between Ankara and Athens. Gerapetritis, as well as his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, also attended the meeting.
“The two leaders instructed the foreign ministers to survey the ground on whether there are favorable conditions to initiate discussions on the delimitation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone,” Gerapetritis told journalists after the meeting, according to a transcript released by the Greek Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
Despite being NATO allies, the two Aegean neighbors do not have a maritime demarcation deal due to conflicting territorial claims in the Aegean Sea, and they often engage in spats in the contested waters. Territorial disputes brought the two NATO allies to the brink of military confrontation before devastating twin earthquakes struck Turkey in February 2023, paving the way for a Turkish-Greek detente.
