Greek premier expects meeting with Erdoğan

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he expects to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in near future.

“We need to communicate,” Mitsotakis said in his interview with a Greek TV channel, state-run Anadolu agency reported on Friday.

Greece and Turkey’s relationship has deteriorated in recent years over a number of long-standing differences including maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, where they have overlapping claims to hydrocarbon reserves.

Political and military tensions escalated in August when Turkey sent its Oruç Reis research vessel escorted by warships into a disputed area between Cyprus and the Greek island of Crete.

The only framework to solve the bilateral conflicts between the two countries was international law, Mitsotakis said. “We don’t want anything else than international law in our international relations.”

Relations between the two countries, which their clear differences, have now become Turkey-Europe relations, the Greek Prime Minister said, according to Anadolu.

Speaking about Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ recent visit to Ankara, which ended in controversy, Mitsotakis said: “Public confrontations are rare but can be beneficial.”

Tensions boiled over during Dendias’ press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, after the Greek Foreign Minister claimed Turkey had violated his country’s rights.

Çavuşoğlu responded by saying Dendias had made unacceptable allegations, sparking an angry back and fourth between the two.

However, the Greek Prime Minister stressed Dendias had been given a mandate to not “leave any challenge unanswered” during his Turkey visit, Anadolu said.