AP News, January 23rd, 2008
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Wednesday became the first Greek premier to pay an official visit to Turkey in nearly 50 years, reflecting warmer ties between two countries that have come close to war several times.
Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke of their determination to work toward resolving long-standing disputes — including the divided island of Cyprus as well as airspace and sea boundaries in the Aegean Sea — but there was no concrete agreement on how to proceed.
"It is time to turn a new page," Karamanlis said in a joint news conference with Erdogan.
The two countries have nearly gone to war three times since 1974, but relations have thawed considerably over the past decade.
Karamanlis said the European Union is obliged to accept Turkey as a full member once it "fulfills its obligation." That includes finding a solution to the Cyprus problem, expanding rights of religious minorities and reopening a Greek Orthodox seminary that trained generations of leaders — including current Patriarch Bartholomew I — but was shut down two decades ago.
Cyprus has been divided into an internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish-Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded after a short-lived coup aiming to unite the island with Greece.
Turkey, which has 40,000 troops in the Turkish Cypriot north, is under intense pressure from the EU to allow Greek Cypriot planes and vessels to use Turkish ports and airports. But Ankara has said it will not agree to any concessions on Cyprus until the EU keeps to a promise to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
Erdogan said reunification talks in Cyprus should resume with a new momentum after elections in the Greek-Cypriot south next month.
"I believe it is of great importance for the negotiations to get started after the elections in southern Cyprus," Erdogan said.
Karamanlis agreed that time has come to reunify the island.
"Now, a last opportunity is ahead to tear down the last wall in Europe," Karamanlis said. He was referring to Cyprus' capital, Nicosia, which is divided by a barbed wire demarcation line known as the Green Line.
Another core difference between the two countries is delineating the continental shelf in the Aegean Sea. The dispute, which affects mineral and oil exploration rights, nearly led to war in 1987. Karamanlis reiterated Athens' position that the dispute be settled though the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Turkey believes the dispute should be resolved through dialogue.
Erdogan said both prime ministers have agreed that negotiations on disputes over the Aegean Sea should speed up.
"We are determined to make the Aegean a sea of peace," he said.
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Associated Press Reporters Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara and Onur C. Ant in Istanbul contributed to this report.
