Greek, Turkish FMs discuss migration

Greece’s caretaker Foreign Minister Vassilis Kaskarelis and Turkey’s newly sworn Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the migration issue in a phone call Tuesday.

Migrant flows into Greece have picked up over the past few weeks, aided by lower water levels on the Evros river, which forms almost all the land border between the two countries.

Turkey has a record of pushing migrants across the border, most notably in early 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic.

But caretaker Citizen Protection Minister Charalambos Lalousis, who retired as Chief of the Army Staff last January, said he did “not believe that Turkey is weaponizing migration” at this point.

Lalousis, whose ministry oversees Greece’s police and other security forces, was responding to a reporter’s question on a visit to Thessaloniki.

Lalousis added that protecting citizens’ security concerns is a priority for the caretaker government, which is charged with conducting the June 25 election, and that it is acting according to a plan.