No 3rd parties needed to solve Ankara, Athens problems: Erdoğan
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan poses for a photograph during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion, Athens, Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (EPA Photo)


Türkiye and Greece do not need the involvement of any third parties to resolve their mutual problems and disagreements, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday.

"Türkiye and Greece have enough knowledge, experience and determination to resolve their issues amicably without the need for the intervention of third parties," Erdoğan told reporters on his return flight from Athens.

Erdoğan said his visit to Greece had a "very positive atmosphere," adding that it could open a new page in relations between the Aegean neighbors.

"Comprehensive and fair sharing in the Eastern Mediterranean is possible. So long as we build the basis to make this happen, form correct roadmaps and don’t give provocations an opportunity," he said, adding a regional conference of littoral states that Ankara is proposing would be a "correct step" in forming this basis.

The two countries on Thursday restarted high-level talks to reduce chronic tensions in their relations as the Turkish president visited the Greek capital for the first time in six years after a long period of tension marked by disputes over migration, energy exploration in the Aegean and territorial sovereignty.

There has been a rapprochement in Turkish-Greek relations in recent months, encouraged by the goodwill and humanitarian assistance shown on both sides earlier this year when two deadly earthquakes rocked southeastern Türkiye and when Greece suffered a tragic train incident.