Greece and Turkey will sit down for exploratory talks on Jan. 25 in Istanbul for the first time since March 2016. After the high tensions of last year and being nudged to discussions by the European Union and the United States, the two historic rivals both seem to believe they benefit from the optics of talks.
“In the short term, both Greece and Turkey are content with the process unfolding in this format,” Kostas Ifantis, former director for research at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and professor of international relations at Panteion University in Athens, told Al-Monitor.