Turkey: Restarting Dialogue or Bubble?
Greece – Turkey: Restarting dialogue or a bubble? NATO and EU are pushing, Turkey hopes to use it – What Greece is doing
By Sotiris Sideris at omegapress.gr
It is a matter of days before a new cycle of Greece-Turkey dialogue on military MOUs begins under NATO pressure. This development came during the Panagiotopoulos-Akar meeting on Thursday, October 13 in Brussels.
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An indication of who is the powerful center of power in Turkey are the statements made after his meeting with Greek Defense Minister Niko Panagiotopoulos, Hulusi Akar’s Turkish counterpart.
Who asked Panagiotopoulos to continue the dialogue on the MOUs and even said that he is waiting for the Greek delegation in Ankara.
The foreign ministries of both countries are absent, it is not clear if diplomats will participate, which although Akar may be considered unnecessary, but Athens must have the diplomat in the delegation.
However, the facts raise some new questions that Athens must first answer.
First, no foreign government and no government official or diplomat in Athens believes that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants, not a conversation that is painless, he wants this for his image inside and outside the country,
but negotiation with Turkey, as it is threatened with consequences by the Karamanlis-Samaras while it itself shows signs of refusal, that the dialogue evolve into decisions and agreements through negotiation.
Secondly how Nikos Panagiotopoulos will negotiate the MOU when he is the same one who effectively stopped the dialogue, because of the positions of the Turks and just recently declared that we must discuss with Turkey “the many differences we have”.
What the differences are, he did not clarify and obviously the Turks who know his statements will present them. Already at omegapress.gr we raised the question to the government if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs knows what differences the Minister of Defense was talking about.
Akar followed Erdogan’s line of dialogue between the two countries without the involvement of third parties.
But Turkey involved Libya in Greek-Turkish relations by making an agreement that upset all the defenders of international law, but wants Greece not to move. So let’s clarify what exactly Turkey means.
The talks without third parties seem to have been the Mitsotakis-Erdogan agreement which, according to the Turkish president, the Greek prime minister violated. Let’s wait for the new round to find out exactly what Ankara is proposing.
No compass
Having absolutely no plan, the Greek side either faces military or diplomatic pressure, follows a delaying tactic, protests, complains, informs, but is unable to argue its positions.
The Greek prime minister intends to include at least partially the issues of Greek-Turkish relations in his electoral agenda, apparently in the form of propaganda, something absolutely wrong.
And it is a wrong choice because on the one hand Mitsotakis, who has constant pressure from Turkey and its allies to negotiate, but also the pressure inside the country to present proposals and concrete positions that he does not have.
In addition to these, a tension around the Greek-Turkish problems will be at the expense of the image of unity of the political world, although the prime minister has not shown particular sensitivities in how he works for unity.
Obviously the Greek Minister of Defense does not understand exactly the meaning of Turkey’s positions and appears silent.
It’s not a plan to stay silent, it’s a weakness. When Akar declares that he looks forward to neighborly relations, it is understood that his Greek counterpart will be reminded of the Turkish threats to the islands and overflights, but it is not enough.
It can invoke the terms that the EU itself has set for what constitutes a good neighbor and refer Turkey to the Copenhagen criteria to understand that the crisis is seriously harming Turkey’s interests.
However, since the government does not even have a European policy, Turkey considers that it can ignore the criteria, which are mandatory, that is, Akgyra cannot choose what to keep and what not.
The issue is whether this agreement was made for the eyes of the world, so that the two countries show that they are talking and at the same time do not take a single step, or whether the Panagiotopoulos-Akar agreement will also activate the exploratory talks in order to have a larger context.
Obviously for NATO, the ban is more important than tension, and that is why it wants to perhaps install some new deterrent mechanism.
In any case, this effort will be appreciated. In the first phase anyway Turkey will use dialogue to convince the US to unblock the F 16 sale and to the EU that it is negotiating and that Greece does not want dialogue.
Waiting to see if this is a bubble or a reboot….