Deutsche Welle: Berlin’s secret mediation in Greek-Turkish

There are things that one talks about in public, and others that belong to the realm of confidentiality. This is as true in our daily lives as it is in politics, and especially in international politics. In the relations between Greece and Turkey, secret diplomacy has always had a fixed place. In some cases the public does not even learn about events that take place behind closed doors or only happen many years later through the memoirs of politicians and diplomats and historical records.

Only scant information has been leaked about the meeting of confidants of the Greek prime minister and the Turkish president just before Christmas. All we know is that Anna-Maria Boura, director of the Greek prime minister’s diplomatic office, and İbrahim Kalin, a close associate of President Erdogan, met at the German delegation in mid-December after the EU summit in Brussels. It is also known that Jens Plettner, the German chancellor’s top foreign policy adviser, sat at the table. It is significant that Plettner was the German ambassador in Athens from 2017 to 2019 and still maintains excellent contacts there. Neither a group photo nor an official announcement came out of the meeting.

“More contacts will follow”

All one could read in the Greek and Turkish press afterwards was that the meeting was held at the initiative of the German side with the aim of exploring the possibilities of reviving the frozen bilateral communication channels. Indeed, diplomatic relations between Greece and Turkey essentially froze after President Erdogan’s announcement last spring that he would no longer meet with Mitsotakis. As a result of the “Mitsotakis yoke” the channels of communication have been “silenced” – at least that is known. The diplomatic silence is accompanied by an unprecedented escalation of hostile rhetoric and repeated violations of Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean by Turkey. All this is not provocative and unacceptable only for the Greeks. More than once, Berlin has made it clear that this behavior by Ankara is unacceptable and must stop.
This attitude became particularly visible during the visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock to Greece and Turkey last July. For the Turkish government, which had grown accustomed to special relations with Angela Merkel over the years, Berlin’s relatively tough language came as a shock. “In the past, Germany behaved as an honest mediator,” complained Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, “but now unfortunately it has lost its balance.” Since then Ankara has repeatedly criticized Germany – and the European Union – for their statements on Greek-Turkish. For this reason, it came as a surprise to some observers that Erdogan agreed to the Brussels meeting. “It is a miracle that they sat in one room,” says a German diplomatic source in Athens. The government spokesman in Berlin did not want to share any other details: “The content of the talks is secret and that makes sense,” he said, adding the following – politically important – information: “The Greek prime minister and the Turkish president expressed themselves very positively to the German question, whether such a meeting would be useful. And he also said that “more contacts will follow, but everything else remains confidential.”

Fermentations in the Berlin, Athens, Ankara triangle

German mediation is not limited to Greek-Turkish relations in the strict sense, but also includes Cyprus. Lately there has been an unprecedented increase in diplomatic contacts between Berlin and Nicosia. In recent months, President Anastasiades visited Berlin. Recently, the until yesterday defense minister of Germany was in Cyprus, which shows that German-Cypriot relations now have a military dimension. A few days ago, finally, the Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulidis visited Germany. “The division of the island cannot be a solution”, was the categorical position of the German foreign minister in a joint press conference. Mrs. Burbock also said that Berlin will continue to do everything it can to de-escalate tensions in the region and added that Cyprus can count on the solidarity of Germany and the EU.

That these are not empty words and the initiatives have tangible results was pointed out by Mr. Kasoulidis with exceptional transparency. “Germany is in a position to talk with Turkey on a friendly give-and-take basis, Germany has proven that.” And Mr. Kasoulidis continued: “I will not go into details, but in 2022, Turkey has not entered the Cypriot EEZ nor has it progressed to Varosia. The fact that all this did not happen is partly due to Germany”, the Cypriot minister concluded. His words are of extraordinary importance because they name with great clarity the specific successes of Berlin’s secret mediation. It can hardly be expected that the Greek – or even the Turkish – government will report with similar transparency in their confidential talks, which are being conducted with the assistance of Germany. In conclusion the success of secret diplomacy largely depends on secrecy. From this point of view, not making everything public has its advantages.

Dr. Ronald Maynardous is a political analyst and commentator and Principal Researcher of ELIAMEP. In the mid-90s, he was director of Hellenic
Edited by Deutsche Welle.

DW – Ronald Maynardous

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