Foreign Minister Nikos Drndias said he would only visit Ankara if the country maintained a proper manner. The Minister met with the Archbishop of Athens and All of Greece Ieronymos II on Friday before his scheduled visit to Constantinople (Istanbul) in Turkey where he will meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

“If Turkey maintains a good attitude, I will go to Ankara and I hope that there will be a resumption of negotiations,” said Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias in a statement at the beginning of his meeting with His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

Referring to a possible meeting with Turkish government officials, he said: “I am not over-optimistic, but at least there is a possibility to talk, within the framework of reason and law of course. Because if we are to talk in a framework of arbitrariness, we do not need to speak at all”, he emphasised characteristically.

He added that before going to Ankara, he will visit Constantinople (Istanbul) and meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Dendias also said he would travel to eastern Libya, to Benghazi, on Monday to officially open the Greek consulate there, noting that there were Greek ex-pats there he met with on the recent trip with the Prime Minister in Tripoli.

Dendias said he had briefed the Archbishop on matters of national affairs.

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