Akar announces meeting of Greek, Turkish officials in Ankara

Turkey’s Defense Minister said on Friday that Turkish and Greek officials are scheduled to meet in Ankara in the coming days to “address issues that have led to rising tensions,” according to Turkish press reports.

“We try to solve problems with these [kinds of] meetings. Our work continues in this direction,” Hulusi Akar was quoted as saying in pro-government Yeni Safak during a visit to Edirne, in northwestern Turkey.

The date was not specified in the report.

However, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told broadcaster ANT1 on Thursday that the two sides “unfortunately still have not reached a point where we can say that we have even agreed to start a dialogue.”

He said by “dialogue” he means the resumption of the exploratory discussions that were interrupted in 2016.