Türkiye’s position for a package solution to all the issues Ankara considers problems with Greece, adding to them the “Turkish minority”, Hakan Fidan reiterated in a TV interview on Thursday night.
The Turkish foreign minister named the package of issues, maritime areas, airspace, continental shelf, minorities, the “Turkish minority”, the election of muftis, the Cyprus problem, and issues related to the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.
“There is a process of normalization of relations with Greece, especially at the level of the leaders of the two countries. President Erdoğan, since he was prime minister, in all the governments he has led, has always tried to give the green light for exploratory talks with Greece to see how we can solve our problems,” Fidan said.
“After the May 2023 elections, there were elections in Greece where Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected with a wide majority, as was President Erdoğan. Then the two leaders said “We inherited the problem from our predecessors but let’s not leave it to our children. Let’s sit down and find out how we can solve the problems between us in a civilized way,” the Turkish foreign minister continued.
Describing the mandate he has with his Greek counterpart from the leaders of Greece and Türkiye, Fidan then said “We are looking for ways to solve problems by defending the rights and interests of our countries. Both sides attach importance to reducing tensions. There are sometimes some incidents but we in Türkiye treat them as provocations. We see that the Mitsotakis government has a strategy of avoiding tensions and continuing negotiations in a positive way.”
“How can we move to practical solutions?” he then asked, referring to a core of problems between Türkiye and Greece: “maritime areas, airspace, continental shelf, minorities, the ‘Turkish minority’, the election of muftis, the Cyprus problem and issues related to the Mediterranean and the Aegean.”
According to Hakan Fidan, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is addressing these issues “with a global perspective, and for the time being, we see the same approach from the Greek side, both in the Prime Minister and my counterpart, the Foreign Minister. God willing, our efforts will bring concrete results, that is our intention. God willing, it will produce positive results for the ‘Turkish minority’ in Western Thrace, for all the general problems in the Aegean, and for the issues in the Mediterranean”.
Asked whether he was reacting to what he called “provocations”, Türkiye’s foreign minister tried to defend his stance, saying that as Foreign Minister “I do not want to insult either my Greek interlocutors or the Greek people. However, we are not a country that defines its policy through Greece.”
“There is already a war in the Black Sea. Calm in the Aegean is precious and therefore we need to behave responsibly. But everyone knows that our army is ready to counter any provocation as it has been instructed to do so. Our priority, however, remains to move our issues forward diplomatically.”
In this context, and finally responding to a question about the opposition’s accusations in Turkey that the Erdoğan government has made concessions to Greece, Fidan replied “National and foreign policy issues are serious, they are not funny and we have to approach them with caution. This is not an area where people can say whatever comes into their minds every day, people here need to know their limits. To bring up an issue that you can’t prove in this way is an insult to the effort of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police officers, intelligence officers, diplomats, and politicians who love this state and this nation.”
