By Penelope Galliou

With an eye on the Greek-Turkish Summit that will take place in Thessaloniki on December 7in the presence of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Tayyip Erdogan, the Greek side is preparing and aims, despite the adverse international conditions caused by the flare-up in the Middle East, to preserve and maintain the good climate and rapprochement that exists between the two sides of the Aegean.

“Of course, it is not easy to find a place to improve Greek-Turkish relations with everything that is happening in our neighborhood” the Prime Minister had recently admitted at his conference “Economist”given Tayyip Erdogan’s stance towards Hamas, but Greece remains committed to the positive agenda between Athens and Ankara.

He confirmed exactly this attitude in his interview with Politico, during which Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated that he was looking forward to the improvement of Greece’s relationship with Turkey, noting that there has already been a “change of style” in recent months. Despite persistent disagreements between Athens and Ankara – particularly the ongoing dispute over maritime zones in the Aegean – Mr Mitsotakis said he hoped the two countries could work together. “I have always been an open supporter that Turkey should be financially supported by the European Union because it is currently hosting millions of Syrian refugees,” he said. “There are win-win areas where we can work together.”

In the midst of international processes, however, for the conflict in Israel, Greece and Turkey are continuing the preparatory work for the Thessaloniki summit, at an intensive pace and at the same time with moderate optimism, based on three pillars:

– the talks between Foreign Ministers Giorgos Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan,

-the meetings of those responsible for the political dialogue of Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Papadopoulou and Burak Aksapar

– the negotiations for the so-called “positive agenda”, which are handled from the Greek side by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for Economic Diplomacy and External Affairs, Kostas Fragogiannis.

“It is in the interest of both sides that Greek-Turkish relations sail in calm waters. I believe that this also characterizes the next steps of this discussion between Greece and Turkey, without anyone being able to prejudge either the end or the developments”, stressed Deputy Foreign Minister Alexandra Papadopoulou, during the briefing she gave at the joint meeting of the parliamentary committees of European Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Defence.

“Regardless of the different goals that each country has, the different theories, visions, sensitivities, nevertheless, neither of the two countries – nor any other country in the Eastern Mediterranean – wants to live in a condition of increased insecurity, wants to live in a region that is really being tested by a major conflict that is taking place in the Middle East”, stressed Mrs. Papadopoulou and added that “in this very fluid environment, I don’t think there is any country that would like to be even more fluid environment. Right now unfortunately, the international environment is too fluid, for too many factors and no one wants to make it worse. We all want to maintain calm, stability, peace in our country, in our region and of course the well-being of the Greek people above all.”

The “positive agenda” between Greece and Turkey includes more than 29 thematic sections of economic and commercial interest, from trade and rural development to shipping and tourism, is progressing at a satisfactory pace with the aim of signing the relevant agreements in Thessaloniki.

At the same time, the talks on the immigration-refugee issue are continuing at a good level, where there is a desire on both sides for better cooperation. As the Minister of Immigration Dimitris Kairidis stated to SKAI, there is an agreement with Turkey on migration and a large reduction in flows is already observed continuously, noting that the reduction in flows reached 43% and in November he estimated that the drop in migration flows will exceed 70 %.

Data, which are clearly encouraging, but as Mr. Kairides said, the country should remain careful. However, as he noted, the Turkish security authorities are cooperating in a way that they did not do in the past and have also controlled the Evros, the land border and the Aegean which is also difficult.

According to information, the two countries have reached an agreement in principle on the interception of the Migrant, which, once finalized, will upgrade the cooperation in this critical field as a whole, and especially the difficult situation caused by the unrest in the Middle East. According to the same information, this agreement provides for the direct cooperation of Greek and Turkish officers of the two Coast Guards who will settle on the coasts of Turkey some Greeks and some Turkish officers on the Greek coasts respectively. The aim is to optimize cooperation between them, which will act as a deterrent in terms of migration flows.