ISTANBUL (ANA/MPA-G. Mandalidis) – Türkiye’s relations with Greece are developing in a positive direction, Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan told the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on Monday.

Fidan said Türkiye “will continue to protect its rights and interests in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean assiduously” and said that for his country the priorities were what he described as “the situation of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace and of our diaspora living in the Dodecanese Islands”. Referring to the Cyprus issue, he said that a just and permanent solution requires “guaranteeing the sovereign equality and the equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

He also insisted that “if a negotiation takes place, it would not be between the [Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot] communities on the island, but between the two states” of Greece and Türkiye, while “the status of the two sides will be made equal before they sit down at the negotiating table.”

The Turkish minister told the committee that Türkiye wanted to “promote its relations with neighboring Greece through sincere and constructive dialog on the basis of a positive agenda” in order to contribute to the peace, stability, and prosperity of the region. Reviewing the high-level contacts between Greece and Türkiye this year, Fidan said the two countries aimed at developing a positive agenda ahead of the December 7 meeting of the bilateral High-Level Cooperation Council in Athens.