Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo: prof. Twitter).
by Alberto Galvi –
Despite their often strained relations, the leaders of Greece and Turkey have agreed to resume bilateral talks, which were halted last year by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan over a dispute over airspace violations and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis being accused of pressuring the United States to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
For decades the two NATO allies have been at odds over a number of issues, including the beginning and end of their continental shelves, energy resources, Aegean Sea overflights and the partition of Cyprus.
Both recently re-elected Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, and the two sides’ cabinet ministers will meet later this summer in the northern city of Thessaloniki Greece.
Relations between the two countries improved when Greece became one of the first to send relief workers to Turkey following February’s devastating earthquakes, which killed 50,000 people. So-called earthquake diplomacy also came into play in 1999, when two major tremors struck Turkey and Greece within a month of each other.
The US has agreed to sell 40 F-16s to Türkiye.
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