Looking for a rapprochement, but cautiously
Despite the seemingly more positive undertone in the comments made to Kathimerini by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before Turkey’s recent presidential elections, Greece has to remain vigilant, making good use of its deepening alliance with the United States, membership in the European Union and close cooperation with major countries in its region, namely Israel and Egypt.
The rapid developments in the first of these tracks was at the forefront this past month as members of the diaspora held their annual PSEKA Cyprus and Hellenic conference in Washington, DC, where they met and discussed with 39 leading members of the Senate and Congress, including the majority leader of the Senate, the Republican and the Democratic leaders of the House, as well as chairmen of important committees.
The same day, in New York, major figures of the Greek-American community hosted a dinner for President Joe Biden.
As one influential voice in the Administration noted in a private conversation during the conference, the more the US invests in Greece – in the defence, energy and commercial sectors – the more it is becoming a permanent part of Greece’s pivotal role in the regional equation.
All of the country’s politicians, across the ideological spectrum, prefer a real improvement in bilateral relations with Turkey. Hopefully, that will be the spirit in the possible meeting between the prime minister that will be elected in the second Greek election on June 25, and Mr Erdogan, during the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania on July 11-12.
But as the revisionism of the last decade has become the strategic norm of almost all political forces in the neighboring country, Athens cannot but remain cautious about the prospects of Ankara moving away from its effort to become the hegemonic power from the Balkans to the East Med and even North Africa, projecting an aggressive behavior and infringing on the rights of other countries, including Greece.
Greece is sincere in its readiness to work for a rapprochement and hopes that after changing course in his approach towards Israel, Egypt and even Syria, Erdogan will make a similar move with respect to Greece. Still, given the reality mentioned above, it will wait for signs from Ankara that it is abandoning its expansionist approach and is abiding by international law and accepted norms.
