By Penelope Galliou

The “good wind” that has been blowing in the Aegean recently and the rapprochement movements that are taking place on both sides of the Aegean, between Greece and Turkey, finally created the conditions that now officially lead the two neighboring leaders, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Tayyip Erdogan, to a new tete-a-tete in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, on September 18-20.

The meeting was also “officialized” through the mouth of the government representative Pavlos Marinakis, emitting the corresponding signals of restrained optimism, accompanied by the necessary clarifications reminding of the fixed and immovable position of Greece regarding our sovereign rights. “Our country always attends these meetings and all these initiatives, without the slightest inclination, apparently, to give way to sovereign rightsa – I say this so that there is no misunderstanding – but with a desire to continue the dialogue and to observe everything that we had said in the previous months”, commented the government representative, during the briefing of the political editors, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Despite the undeniably positive climate that exists on both sides of the Aegean at the present time, and the sustained recession of the Turkish challenges, Athens has not retreated even an iota from its “red lines”, which the Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Geraptritis emphasizes at every opportunity , stating that “the government is never going to discuss with Turkey issues related to national sovereignty, let alone sovereign rights”.

According to diplomatic sources, however, it is very important the government to take advantage of this historic opportunity as both countries have freshly empowered governments. “There should be a willingness on the part of both leaderships to have an honest approach” they typically commented while noting Greece’s steadfast and unwavering commitment to respect and observance of International Law.

In this light and with these non-negotiable conditions, Giorgos Gerapetritis will go to Ankara on September 5, in order to meet with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan and with the primary objective to prepare the meeting agenda of the two leaders of their countries. A meeting fueled from the preamble with the looming disposition of both sides to “seize the thread” of rapprochement under the regime of the good climate that characterizes Greek-Turkish relations recently. “It is very important to follow the path of the positive climate that governs our bilateral relations” remarked a government official, commenting at the same time that Turkey’s current “turn” in the geostrategic field concerns us directly, always having in the back of our minds that the relationship Turkey’s relationship with the West and Europe is now transactional and a constant give and take”.