Turkey’s Defense Minister Fikri Işık called on Greece to solve the problems between the two neighbors through dialogue amid escalating tensions between the two NATO allies. Işık said the neighboring countries should work together to solve their problems. But what are the problems between the two countries, what kind of dialogue does Turkey has in mind?
“Of course there are problems that haven’t been solved until today. But the solution to these problems are not to challenge, but to continue exploratory talks regarding the problems,” said Işık during a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) meeting in Turkey’s northwestern province of Kocaeli on Feb. 5.
Exploratory talks between the teams of Greek and Turkish foreign ministries started in 2002 with the purpose to improve relations between the two neighboring countries.
Sixty rounds of talks revealed that the two NATO allies are miles apart from agree on a solution to solve mutual problems like the Aegean disputes that emerged in 1996 by the Turkish side.
The only issue Greece accepts to negotiate with Turkey about is the demarkation of the Continental Shelf that affects mineral and oil exploration rights in the Aegean Sea. While Athens has been saying that the islands in the Aegean have continental self, Ankara insists that the only continental self to be recognized is the one that extends from Turkey’s land mass into the sea.
Other issues that Turkey wants to solve through wide-ranging dialogue are: the dispute over the airspace but mainly the sovereign rights of small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea. Turkey claims that 130 islets and rocks in the Aegean were not mentioned by name in the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 and therefore they belonged to Turkey.
The Paris Treaty was signed between the WWII allies winners and minor Axis powers like Italy. The Dodecanese islands were ceded to Greece. They were occupied by Italy in 1912 during the Italian-Turkish [Ottoman Empire] war over Libya. turkey renounced all claims to these islands and islets in Article 15 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. This is also the reason why President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists that the Lausanne Treaty needs to be revised.
Erdogan has brought the Treaty of Lausanne issue already in September 2016.
Tension between Greece and Turkey escalated after the Supreme Court rejected Ankara’s request to extradite 8 Turkish soldiers who had fled right after the failed coup of July 2016 and sought asylum in Greece.
Just days after the court decision, Ankara engaged into to a series of Greek sea and air space violations and verbal provocations and even sent its top military leadership for a ‘visit’ around the highly disputed islet of Imia.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Isik also critizied his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos saying:
“In recent days, we have sadly been watching the Greek Defense Minister who made extremely unfounded and irresponsible statements. His statements and actions are irresponsible and provocative, therefore, I condemn him,” he said.
“Turkey and Greece need to solve their regional problems by sitting down and talking. As Turkey, this is our attitude. Therefore we do not accept anyone making irresponsible and provocative statements,” Isik added.
At the end of the day, all these Turkish provocations and violations aimed to have Greece return to the table of the exploratory talks? I cannot tell you exactly when was the last exploratory talks meeting, it could have been in December 2015.
I would not exclude the option that the exploratory talks led to a deadlock after Greece put only one issue on the table and Ankara submitted a long list.
