Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Thursday that he will visit the Turkish capital Ankara on May 13. Mitsotakis' visit aims to build upon the momentum Türkiye and Greece regained in their relations recently after a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Athens in December.
Since then, delegations of the two sides held confidence-building talks but outstanding issues still strain the process. Marine parks are among them. In remarks following a special meeting of the European Council in Brussels, Mitsotakis touched on the matter of "marine parks," which Greece announced that it will form in the Aegean and Ionian seas, a move Türkiye has denounced. "Greece exercises its sovereign rights in the Aegean based on international law and the law of the sea," he said of the move, adding that he was surprised by Türkiye’s negative reaction.
He added: "I do not believe the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations, which is indisputable and measurable, leads to the hypothesis that Türkiye’s position on the EEZs (Exclusive Economic Zone) has changed." On the EEZ issue, he said: "They remain deeply problematic for our country."
Türkiye cautioned Greece on April 10 against exploiting environmental issues for political gain after Athens announced plans to launch two new marine parks. The Foreign Ministry urged Greece not to involve outstanding issues between the two countries concerning the Aegean Sea, including "the status of some islands, islets and rocks whose sovereignty has not been ceded to Greece by international treaties, within the framework of its own agenda."
On the special meeting’s decisions on relations with Türkiye, which earlier today were slammed by Ankara, Mitsotakis said: "It is clear that the progress of Euro-Turkish relations is also affected by developments in the Cyprus issue, as evidenced by the relevant paragraph in the text of the conclusions."
"As such, they are satisfactory for us," he said. Türkiye on Thursday criticized the conclusions of this week’s extraordinary European Council meeting, accusing the EU of lacking "strategic vision" in its approach to the country and decrying the new emphasis on the island of Cyprus.
The European Union emphasized its strategic interest in developing a relationship with Türkiye based on cooperation and mutual benefit, saying Wednesday that it attaches "great importance" to the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus issue within this context.
"The conclusions on Türkiye by the Special European Council held in Brussels on April 17-18, 2024, are yet another example of the EU's lack of strategic vision on Türkiye and the global developments," a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Thursday said.
"It is contradictory that the council did not take any decisions on the recommendations of the Joint Communication on EU-Türkiye Relations prepared by the High Representative Borrell and the commission, although the council's conclusions emphasize that the EU has a strategic interest in developing a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Türkiye. Türkiye will never accept an approach that links progress in Türkiye-EU relations to the Cyprus issue. It is necessary to abandon an understanding that reduces these multifaceted relations to the Cyprus issue. Such a mentality cannot make a positive and constructive contribution to the problem, nor to the other regional and global issues," it added.
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.