Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived shortly after 11:00 a.m. at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.
The Prime Minister arrived in Istanbul in the Prime Minister's aircraft and went straight to the Patriarchate in order to attend the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, alongside Patriarch Bartholomew.
Immediately afterwards, he will leave the Phanar for the Vahdetin Palace in the Uskundar district on the Asian side of Istanbul, to be received at 13:00 by the Turkish President, who will host a lunch in his honour. The meeting between the two men will last about two hours.
Before the start of the Mass, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew called for an end to the war in Ukraine. "We are watching the drama of the Ukrainian people and admire their fierce resistance to the invader. We appeal for an immediate ceasefire. Violence and war create more complicated problems. The war must end. The UN Charter expressly prohibits the use of force in international relations and commits all members of the organization to settle their differences by peaceful means," he said.
The agenda
There has been careful preparation for the meeting between the two staffs and that was the reason why the Greek side had avoided immediately confirming the Turkish leaks so that all the details would be locked. The existence of an agenda means, in essence, that the two leaders are not just having a free conversation, which can also be diverted, especially by actions on the Turkish side.
The focus of the discussion, therefore, includes regional developments after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also the security architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean. Mitsotakis' message is that our region cannot be a second source of geopolitical instability, so the tone must be lowered, and he also sends a message to Mr Erdogan that historical revisionism is not acceptable. Of course, in such a discussion, it is obvious that our bilateral issues will also be discussed, with the prime minister ready if Erdogan puts forward his revisionist agenda, while the so-called "positive agenda" is also on the table, with low-policy measures, handled in a good atmosphere by the two deputy foreign ministers Kostas Fragoyannis and Sedat Onal. Of course, the new energy balances are also on the table, as the Eastern Mediterranean could serve as an alternative hub, especially for LNG cargoes, given Europe's will to become independent from Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
In Athens, of course, there are no exaggerated expectations from the meeting and the Prime Minister is rather going with the ball low. But from the Maximus building, they say there must be a channel of communication and despite disagreements, Greece and Turkey must talk, especially in this completely new geopolitical environment. Interesting in this equation is, of course, the fact that the Turks are at this stage showing some signs of understanding.
Source: protothema.gr
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