PM Mitsotakis and Turkish President Erdogan speak on the phone

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the telephone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, government sources said.

“Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today. The two leaders discussed the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the efforts to address them, as well as issues related to the opening of borders and the restoration of tourist flows.

Mr Mitsotakis and Mr Erdogan have agreed to keep bilateral communication channels open.

The phone call between the two men was arranged after contacts between Ambassador Eleni Sourani, director of the prime minister’s diplomatic office, and Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for the Turkish president.

The agreement reached between Ms. Sourani and Ms. Kalin was that Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Tayyip Erdogan would discuss low-level policy issues in a first attempt to restore communication channels between Athens and Ankara.

The Prime Minister and the President of Turkey had not talked since December 4, 2019, when they met in London, on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

“Diplomacy and understanding with broken communication channels is not possible”, noted sources near Kyriakos Mitsotakis at protothema.gr.

According to the same information from the Greek side, the Prime Minister and the President of Turkey agreed that the tension between the two countries has reached high levels and the restoration of communication channels between the two countries is needed.

In a televised interview with Star on May 25, Mr Mitsotakis had stated that:

“We are certain we have the right on our side and Greece is currently a country that has confidence. It should not be a question of whether and how the Greek Prime Minister will talk to the Turkish president – it should not be news. How do we talk about issues such as, e.g. the pandemic. It does not mean that because there can be a communication, it will solve all the issues that we disagree on… This also does not mean that there should be no channels of communication”.

The Prime Minister’s communication with the President of Turkey does not in any way imply compromise on the national interests of the country, noted an associate of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to protothema.gr.

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