Delegations from the defense ministries of Türkiye and Greece came together in Istanbul on Tuesday for a meeting entitled “Confidence-Building Measures 2024 Application Plan.” The meeting, held at the campus of National Defense University, will continue until Thursday, one day before Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to Athens.
After a long period of tensions marked by disputes over irregular migration, the Cyprus dispute, energy exploration and territorial sovereignty in the Aegean, Türkiye and Greece have been taking confidence-building steps for a fragile normalization of their relations, which moved into a new chapter with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to Athens in December.
During the visit, the sides announced a friendship declaration, visa facilitation for Turkish citizens for 10 Greek islands in the northern Aegean for up to seven days and the decreased flow of irregular migrants to Greece.
While officials on both sides have expressed commitment to maintaining the positive climate, the issues are longstanding and deep-rooted, and neither side expects the process to be without turbulence, particularly in the Aegean, where Turkish and Greek jets often scuffled until very recently.
Earlier in January, Ankara and Athens reached respective deals with Washington for fighter jets, raising concerns about fresh skirmishes in the region.
Ankara has repeatedly warned its neighbor against entering an arms race with Türkiye, particularly on building a military presence on the disputed Aegean islands since the 1960s, in violation of postwar treaties.
Greece’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and the upping of defense budgets are meant to counter the protection of Turkish interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece says it needs to defend the islands against a potential attack from Türkiye, but Turkish officials said continued militarization of the islands could lead to Ankara questioning their ownership.
Fidan on Friday is scheduled to meet his counterpart George Gerapetritis to discuss aspects of bilateral relations and review preparations for the High-Level Cooperation Council’s sixth meeting expected to be held in Ankara in early 2025. The sides will also set the date for Political Dialogue and Positive Agenda Joint Action Plan meetings. The two meetings are part of mechanisms that also include confidence-building measures meetings that aim to resolve differences through dialogue and improving ties between the two neighbors. The last meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council was chaired by Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Dec. 7, 2023. The meeting was concluded with the signing of 15 deals and memoranda of understanding on various fields, in addition to the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborhood. Mitsotakis also visited Ankara on May 13 upon the invitation of Erdoğan.
Gerapetritis visited Ankara on Sept. 5, 2023, while he has also met Fidan on the sidelines of various international meetings abroad.
Türkiye and Greece also aspire to expand their trade. The bilateral trade volume broke a record in 2023 with $5.8 billion (TL 198.73 billion) and is expected to reach $6 billion by the end of this year. The two sides are committed to further increasing it to $10 billion.
Transportation and tourism make up the majority of efforts to increase economic cooperation as the two countries are situated in a region bridging Asia and Europe. Cultural ties between Greece, once ruled by Ottomans, and Türkiye have also played a role in boosting tourism. Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, which lie in close proximity to the Turkish coast are particularly popular among Turkish tourists. Turkish and Greek ministers are expected to hold cooperation meetings this month and in December in Istanbul and Athens on maritime shipping and tourism.
As for transportation, plans are underway for the construction of a second bridge in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne on the border with Greece.
Issues related to maritime borders in the Aegean Sea remain a source of contention between the two countries.
Türkiye consistently reminds Greece that the Aegean issues, a significant agenda item between the two countries, are interconnected and should be addressed as a whole. Ankara also expresses its readiness for discussions on this basis.
In this context, Türkiye continues to convey its expectation to Greece to avoid provocations in rhetoric and actions, in line with the spirit of the Athens Declaration.
Ankara also maintains its expectation that the current positive momentum in Turkish-Greek relations will reflect on the status of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace and Turkish communities in Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Kos. It also expects an end to rights violations affecting the Turkish minority and communities, and continues to communicate this to Greece.
