ΒΒC.COM
"...The first visit to Greece by a Turkish head of state in 65 years has got off to a tense start, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his host swapping pointed remarks.
"...The first visit to Greece by a Turkish head of state in 65 years has got off to a tense start, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his host swapping pointed remarks.
Mr Erdogan said the 1923 treaty that settled Turkey's borders after World War One was not being applied fairly.
But Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos rejected any change to the Treaty of Lausanne.
Relations between the two Nato members have been uneasy for decades...."
REUTERS
"Designed to boost relations between the two nations, the first visit of a Turkish president in 65 years quickly turned into a blunt grudge-fest between the NATO allies.
The two countries agreed to revive a consultation process for confidence-building measures, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. By the end of the first day, both sides appeared to pull back from what threatened to be a massive diplomatic flop..."...
TRTWORLD
"Erdogan visited the Turkish-Muslim community in Komotini, a town in northern Greece which once belonged to the Ottoman Empire. A day earlier, he riled his Greek hosts by suggesting the 130,000 Muslims in the region were discriminated against by Athens..."
DW
"Rocky start
Indeed, the trip got off to a somewhat rocky start during Erdogan's first stop, talks with Greek President Prokopis
Pavlopoulos. Earlier, Erdogan had hinted that he may address the issue of reworking the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which established the borders of modern Turkey.
Pavlopoulos. Earlier, Erdogan had hinted that he may address the issue of reworking the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which established the borders of modern Turkey.
"The Treaty of Lausanne defines the territory and the sovereignty of Greece and of the European Union and this treaty is for us non-negotiable. It has no flaws, it does not need to be reviewed, or to be updated," Pavlopoulos said.
Erdogan then said that protecting "ethnic kin" in the border region of western Thrace was a "top priority."
Tension over refugee policy
Erdogan is also expected to speak with his Greek hosts about the flow of refugees to Europe. Officially, Athens has signaled its satisfaction with the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal reached in March 2016. One point of the agreement stipulates that Turkey take back refugees that have illegally traveled from Turkish territory to reach Greece's eastern Aegean islands. In Athens' view, the agreement is working, as the number of new arrivals has gone down substantially since 2016. The fact that Turkey has only been able or willing to take back 1,400 people since then, however, has caused consternation.
Moreover, Greece has registered a slight uptick in the number of refugee arrivals over the last several of months. But Filis cautioned that does not mean one should go so far as to claim that the deal is no longer working. "The 1,500 to 2,000 new arrivals per month that were registered last summer represent a significant increase," he said. "But one must not forget that in the summer of 2015 hundreds of thousands of refugees were arriving in Greece from Turkey. That was on a completely different scale."
In any case, Athens is calling for maintaining the EU-Turkey Deal. Anything else, wrote Ta Nea,Athens' biggest daily newspaper, ahead of Erdogan's visit, would bring "a repeat of the dramatic summer of 2015." Filis also does not believe that Turkey will make good on its threat of withdrawing from the deal. Although he does expect that Erdogan will insist upon concessions from Greece for upholding it. "Just as he has closed the border for human traffickers, he is now apparently calling for Greece to close its borders to Turkish citizens that have continued to flee to Greece and apply for asylum there in the wake of the failed 2016 Turkish coup," Filis said."
http://gazette.com
"..The Greek government had expressed hopes that the visit — the first to Greece by a Turkish president in 65 years — would help improve the often-frosty relations between the two neighbors. The NATO allies are divided by a series of decades-old issues, including territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea, and have come to the brink of war three times since the early 1970s.
But from the outset, the discussions focused on disagreements.
On the eve of his visit, Erdogan rattled his Greek hosts by telling Greece's Skai television that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne should be "updated." The treaty delineated modern Turkey's borders and outlines the status of the Muslim minority in Greece and the Greek minority in Turkey, among other issues.
In a visibly testy first meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the two engaged in a thinly-veiled verbal spat over the treaty and Greece's Muslim minority, which Erdogan is to visit Friday.
"This happened in Lausanne, that happened in Lausanne. I get that, but let's now quickly do what is necessary," Erdogan told Pavlopoulos. "Many things have changed in 94 years. If we review these, I believe that all the sides will agree that so many things have to (change.)"
The spat continued during Erdogan's appearance at an unusually candid joint news conference with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The two listed a series of grievances their countries have with each other, including religious and minority rights, the divided island of Cyprus and the case of ten Turkish servicemen who have applied for asylum in Greece following a Turkish government crackdown after a failed coup last year.
"It is very important to strengthen our channels of communication, and this can only happen on the basis of mutual respect," Tsipras said.
The prime minister said the two also discussed tensions in the Aegean Sea, where Greece complains Turkish fighter jets frequently violate its airspace.
"The increasing violations of Greek airspace in the Aegean and particularly the simulated dogfights in the Aegean pose a threat to our relations, and particularly a threat to our pilots," Tsipras said..."
"THE GUARDIAN.COM
"...What had been billed a groundbreaking visit to Greece, the first by a Turkish president in 65 years, turned into a verbal theatre of war as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, flouting the niceties of diplomacy, crossed an array of red lines.
Disputes that had lain dormant – not least the 1923 Treaty of Lausannedelineating the borders between the two nations – were prised open with brutal force on Thursday by Erdoğan on the first day of a historic visit dominated by the leader’s unpredictability.
Within an hour of stepping off his plane, the pugilistic politician was sparring with the Greek head of state, Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Athens, he said imperiously, would never have entered Nato had it not been for Ankara’s support. As an ally, it should seek to improve the religious rights of the Muslim minority in Thracewhich were enshrined in the Lausanne treaty, he insisted, sitting stony-faced in the inner sanctum of the presidential palace. “It needs to be modernised,” he said of the treaty, which has long governed Greek-Turkish relations and is seen as a cornerstone of regional peace.
A visibly stunned Pavlopoulos hit back, calling the treaty non-negotiable.
“The Treaty of Lausanne defines the territory and the sovereignty of Greece, and of the European Union, and this treaty is non-negotiable. It has no flaws, it does not need to be reviewed, or updated.”
With tensions running high between the two long-time Nato rivals and neighbours, Athens had hoped the 48-hour sojourn would put fraught bilateral relations on a new footing. International condemnation of Erdoğan’s crackdownon democratic institutions, following a foiled coup against him last year, has strained relations with Europe and the US and meant that the Turkish leader has made fewer trips to the west. Greek officials thought he would use the visit to strike a conciliatory note. The red carpet was duly rolled out with military bands and Greece’s ornately dressed presidential guard doing the honours..."
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