ANKARA — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' visit to Turkey underlined a paradox in Turkish-Greek ties: The people of Turkey have the most amiable feelings for Greece among their neighbors, yet Ankara and Athens are far from the reconciliation needed for a good neighborly partnership.
Mitsotakis’ meeting earlier this week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led many experts and officials to hail a new era of good feelings between Turkey and Greece amid progress that began last year. The Turkish and Greek leaders espoused a “spirit of goodwill and cooperation,” promising to boost bilateral trade from $6 billion to $10 billion. During the day-long visit, the two countries penned agreements on disaster management, cooperation in health and medical sciences and the formation of a joint business council.
Experts, however, also point to fundamental challenges remaining for Turkey and Greece, especially their different political outlooks and their complex history.
Esra Ozsuer is an associate professor of political science at Istanbul University and a leading expert on Turkish-Greek relations. “The governments of Turkey and Greece have a long way to go before they can even understand each other politically,” she told Al-Monitor. “But the peoples of the two countries have a much easier time in building sociological and cultural bridges. Their linguistic patterns and culinary culture are similar if not the same, and such social dynamics shorten the political chasm between the two societies.”
