The refugee issue dominated a meeting between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday in New York, and according to government sources the two leaders reaffirmed the need to support the EU-Turkey agreement.
The two leaders confirmed that at this stage it is extremely useful all the issues to be solved through dialogue and understanding, fererring to Turkey’s efforts to reduce refugee flows since last year there were 5,000-7,000 arrivals every day and now refugee flows have been reduced to 150.
Greece still supports Turkey on the issue of visas, provided – as indeed for any other similar issue – that the criteria set by the European Union are followed, while it supports the EU accession process of Turkey, always provided that Turkey meets those provided in the roadmap.
Moreover, Greece supports the assistance to Turkey to address the refugees in its territory.
Regarding the Cyprus issue, Tsipras raised the issue of security, saying that a solution must be formed which will be examined, provided that the Turkish forces will withdraw from the island.
According to government sources, Erdogan did not reply to any issues on the Cyprus problem, adding that the overall response was to continue with cooperation and closer talks to address all open issues.