By Antonis Anzoletou

The earthquake in Turkey, in a very difficult pre-election period for Tayyip Erdogan, changed everything. There were whispers and fears even of a hot episode in the interval between the two elections in Greece, if there is no government of cooperation from the first Sunday. The cooler voices believed that the Turkish president would not pull the rope that hard. Nevertheless, the continued provocative rhetoric about the demilitarization of the islands had created a suffocating framework and little room for maneuver.

Both the first meeting of Nikos Dendias with Mevlut Cavusolgos at the site of the earthquake disaster and yesterday’s meeting in Brussels left many positive messages for the relations between the two countries. At least in the short term. Three years ago, in April 2021, the two men clashed in Ankara in joint press statements with a diplomatic episode freezing relations even more.

Yesterday’s appointment lasted 30 minutes, the atmosphere was very warm and it took place without diplomatic advisors.

The change in the climate in Greek-Turkish relations is reflected in the agreement on the mutual support of the candidacies of Greece and Turkey in international organizations, announced by Nikos Dendias and Mevlut Cavusoglu. The Greek Foreign Minister announced that “Turkey will support and vote for Greece in its campaign for the position of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the period 2025-26. I still had the opportunity to inform my colleague that Greece will support the Turkish candidacy for the position of Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization”.

The quartet of the two ministers took place on the sidelines of the Turkey-Syria Donors Conference, and as Mevlut Cavusoglu said, they agreed to meet again in the near future. With Turkey’s support, Greece effectively secures its election to the UN Security Council, gathering at least 115 positive votes.

Diplomatic sources state that for about 20 days and with absolute secrecy, the discussions between the Greek and Turkish foreign ministries that led to the announcements were ongoing. As the same sources underlined, it is important that Turkey has declared that it will support the Greek candidacy, while it has been announced that it has as its compass the Dialogue, Diplomacy and Democracy (3D) and has as a priority the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect of International Law. The same diplomatic sources also stated that if any problem arose 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.