Calamos Supports Greece
GreekReporter.comGreeceRefugee Crisis 'Neither Greek nor Turkish,' Kotzias and Cavusoglu Agree in Athens

Refugee Crisis 'Neither Greek nor Turkish,' Kotzias and Cavusoglu Agree in Athens

Kotzias and CavusogluThe refugee and migrant crisis is a global problem that concerns all of Europe, not just Greece or Turkey, Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said on Friday in joint statements with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, following their meeting in Athens.
“We agreed that the refugee issue is not a Greek or Turkish issue, nor can it be confined to relations between Greece and Turkey,” Kotzias said. The Greek minister said that they had also discussed the agreement for NATO’s involvement in tackling the refugee and migrant issue.
Kotzias said that Greece was in favor of building up relations with Turkey “often through difficulties,” on the basis of becoming good neighbors and international law. To the degree that they were able to resolve these problems, Greece and Turkey could be a powerful stabilizing factor in the region, he added.
The Greek minister also repeated Greece’s desire for a solution to the Cyprus problem that reflects the hopes, longings and prospects of the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities, noting that such a solution would also help improve relations between Greece and Turkey.
Cavusoglu agreed that the migration crisis was “neither Turkish nor Greek,” adding that ways must be found to handle the massive flows and the resulting humanitarian crisis.
Both ministers agreed that the solution was to strike the problem at its root by stopping the war in Syria and the problems in Iraq and Libya.
Cavusoglu also noted that Greece and Turkey needed to further develop the existing cooperation framework relating to rescue operations, in order to make it more effective, and pointed to recent changes in Turkish law concerning readmission agreements, saying that 99 percent of the 800 readmission agreements submitted by Greece had been approved.
In talks involving delegations, the two sides also examined bilateral agreements designed to encourage investments in both countries, ahead of the high-level Greek-Turkish cooperation council in Izmir next Tuesday. They especially referred to plans for a high-speed rail link between Istanbul, Thessaloniki and the Greek port city of Igoumenitsa, ferry links with Izmir and planned gas pipelines, such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and linking pipelines.
Asked about air space violations in the Aegean, Cavusoglu said there were legal differences between Greece and Turkey but at the same time noted that “humanitarian issues should not be mixed up with politics,” and that territorial disputes should not take precedence over problems involving rescue missions.
“The exploratory talks are held to overcome problems,” Kotzias replied, while stressing the need “to systematically tackle the networks of traffickers and criminals that have a turnover of six billion euros.”
(source: ana-mpa)

See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!



Related Posts