Greece wants better relations with Türkiye, but without crossing 'red lines'

ATHENS

Greece wants better relations with Türkiye but will not back down from “red lines and national priorities,” said the country’s foreign minister on Tuesday.

“It remains to be seen whether Türkiye also sincerely wishes us to open a path to rapprochement," said George Gerapetridis in a statement.

“This does not imply that Greece will back down from its red lines and national priorities, of which a major priority was a fair solution to the Cyprus issue,” according to the statement cited by Greece’s state-run AMNA news agency.

He made the statement after a meeting with Konstantinos Kombos, foreign minister of the Greek Cypriot administration.

Decades-long Cyprus issue

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.​​​​​​​