“I am fully aware of the difficulties in Greek-Turkish relations, but no matter how you look at it, today is a very important day,” underlined the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias in his statements to journalists, commenting on today’s (Monday) announcements with the Turkish counterpart of Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“To understand that, one only has to think about where we were a few weeks ago,” Nikos Dendias pointed out.

After a bilateral meeting, held earlier today on the sidelines of the Turkey-Syria Donors Conference in Brussels, Mr. Dendias and Mr. Cavusoglu announced that Turkey will support and will vote in favor of Greece in her campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council ’25-’26. Greece will support the Turkish candidacy for the General Secretariat of the International Maritime Organization (IMO)

Mr. Dendias spoke to the journalists attending the exhibition of the works of the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, which opens today in Zappeio.

“It is a great pleasure that here in Zappeio, a building full of symbolism, we are opening the exhibition of works by Prime Minister Edi Rama”said Mr. Dendias.

“Turkey’s support for the Greek candidacy is important”

For about 20 days and with absolute secrecy, the discussions between the Greek and Turkish foreign ministries that led to today’s announcements by Foreign Ministers Nikos Dendias and Mevlut Cavusoglu were ongoing, as diplomatic sources reported earlier.

I held a constructive meeting with #Türkiye FM @MevlutCavusoglu in #Brussels. Following the meeting, we walked and entered together the hall of the International Donors’ Conference in support of the people in Turkey & Syria, which takes place today. pic.twitter.com/9SfGl7Jhvu

— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) March 20, 2023

As the diplomatic sources underlined, it is important that Turkey has declared that it will support the Greek candidacy, while it has been announced that it has Dialogue, Diplomacy and Democracy (3D) as its compass, and has as its priority the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for International Law.

The same sources also stated that if any problem were to arise with Greece’s candidacy, it would be from Turkey or the Turkic states or from Russia. With today’s agreement, one factor is ruled out.

Nikos Dendias’la sürdüyoruz. Bazi adaylıklarımızı ışım olarak destekleme karılı aldik.

Met w/@NikosDendias. We continue our solidarity after earthquake & train accident. Agreed to mutually support our candidacies. 🇹🇷🇬🇷 pic.twitter.com/sSKcEMMiDQ

— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) March 20, 2023