Athens mayor in Istanbul, meets with counterpart

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis was in Istanbul on Friday, where he met with his Turkish counterpart Ekrem Imamoglu and renewed a memorandum of cooperation between the two cities.

“The things the two cities have in common should unite the two people,” Bakoyannis told a press conference following his meeting with Imamoglu at Istanbul’s City Hall, adding that the municipal authorities can work together in a number of areas without becoming embroiled in Greek-Turkish politics.

The two mayors also visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul’s Phanar district. “The Patriarchate always sees itself as a bridge of friendship, peace and solidarity,” Patriarch Vartholomaios said as he welcomed his guests and hailed the political symbolism of the joint visit.

Imamoglou said that both sides had “a historic responsibility to build a bridge of peace between Athens and Istanbul.”