The Turkish Foreign Minister described the calm in the Aegean as precious at this time, Hakan Fidan, highlighting that both sides have maximum sensitivity to reduce tension.
He spoke of solving problems in the interests of both countries, but also spoke about Aegean issues, raised Issue of the Turkish minority in Thrace and said that the Turkish army is ready to face any challenge.
“Search normalization”
In a literal interview with Turkish broadcaster Haber Global, the head of Turkish diplomacy said that there is a search for normalization that began at the level of leaders with Greece after the May 2023 elections and tasked the two foreign ministers with looking for ways to resolve this problem peacefully. . “We are really pursuing this with my Greek colleague,” Fidan said.
“We are in such a situation that both sides are showing maximum sensitivity in terms of de-escalation. From time to time some incidents and challenges arise, we as Türkiye also see them, but we see that Greek politics at the current stage, the government of Mr. Mitsotakis, follows a stance of not increasing tension and continuing the talks in a positive way” then said oh Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs and added: “How can we transform this process into practical solutions?” Because there are a set of problems among us, that is, the maritime zones, the aerial zones, the continental shelf, the problem of minorities, that is, the problem of the Turkish minority, the problem of the Muslim minority, there are problems relating to worship there , there are problems relating to the appointment of the mufti, there are problems relating to education, there are positions that both countries have taken on Cyprus, there are issues relating to the Mediterranean, issues relating to the Aegean”.
“There is a vision of how we can resolve all these issues in the interests of both countries, in a way that both countries can accept,” said Hakan Fidan, underlining that “even this vision in itself is really incredibly valuable.”
“We see the same approach”
As I said, “we see the same approach on the Greek side, both on the side of the Prime Minister and on the side of my colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and we hope that our efforts will bring concrete results. This is our intention, both for the Turkish minority in Western Thrace, as in general for all problems in the Aegean and the Mediterranean”.
Hakan Fidan, responding to questions from Haber Global journalists, also said: “We are not a country that determines its policy through Greece, that is, it is not our “other self”. We are not in a situation where our political parties (including Greece) need too much to exist in politics. Thank God, Turkish politics has grown a lot, it has diversified a lot, it is in a situation where it looks at much more important, much more strategic, much higher issues. This does not mean that we ignore these problems. No, but we are at a point where we think more globally and from a broader perspective, that is, just like in the Aegean, we have interests and issues in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, Africa, Central Asia, Asia and the Pacific and we try to manage all of this at the same time. And when we look at the history of Greece, its separation from the Ottoman Empire and its hetero-identification, that is, with us, is inevitably the main determinant of politics there.”
According to the Turkish Foreign Minister, with the exception of a period when Athens’ interest turned to Skopje over the name problem, “which concerned Greece’s historical identity”, as he said, “in Greece’s foreign policy, especially In periods of right-wing governments, the issue has always been Turkey.”
He then asked how we can proceed with more peaceful methods, saying that the region needs peace and tranquility. “I mean, there is already a big war going on in the Black Sea, and this calm in the Aegean is so precious, for us to act consciously and responsibly,” he said, adding: “But everyone knows that our military is ready to repel any challenge. He has received relevant instructions. But our priority is, in fact, to promote our interests in a diplomatic way.”
Asked about opposition criticism of the government’s complacency on issues relating to Greek-Turkish relations, the Turkish Foreign Minister replied that criticism is necessary. “If the government is hiding something, the press and the opposition will discover it and show it to the public. When you go to disinformation, the incident develops in another dimension. Most of the time, “this is how it is” is said without any basis, without any point of reference. Foreign policy issues in national affairs are serious, they are not funny. They must be approached with caution. People should know their limits in this area”, commented the Turkish Foreign Minister.
Source: AMPE