Greek officials say that there has been an improvement in relations with Turkey in recent weeks, a development that has been confirmed at the meeting between Alexis Tsipras and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a high ranking Greek government official said the meeting of the two leaders on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, was conducted in a “better climate” than their previous encounter at the NATO Summit.
The same official said that the release of the two Greek soldiers from a Turkish jail and the decision by the Greek authorities to return immediately two Turkish soldiers who inadvertently entered Greek territory earlier in September, improved the atmosphere in Greco-Turkish relations.
Erdogan referred to the case of the eight Turkish soldiers granted asylum in Greece, but he did not press the issue, the source said.
He also pointed out that within this spirit, Erdogan officially invited Tsipras in Istanbul, a visit most likely to take place later in 2018.
The New York meeting between the two leaders “may signal a turning point” in bilateral relations, said the source, noting however, that there still number of issues that could derail the diplomatic thaw.
First and foremost is the Cyprus issue, where Athens and Nicosia are pressing for a restart of peace talks in accordance with UN decisions.
The Greek official stressed that possible new talks “should not start from scratch”, but from where they ended in Switzerland in 2017.
“Despite the failure of the talks, some concrete progress was made,” the official said. “That’s from where possible new talks should begin,” he added.
Referring to Turkish threats regarding Cyprus’s gas exploration, the same official said that the Cyprus government is “entitled by international law to exploit its energy sources for the benefit of all Cypriots, Greeks and Turks.”
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