Tonight, the Greek delegation headed by Ambassador Pavlos Apostolidis arrives to participate in the exploratory negotiations with the Turkish delegation tomorrow, Monday, which will begin at 10 am, at a hotel in the center of Istanbul.
Tonight, the Greek delegation will attend a dinner at the Greek consulate with the Greek Ambassador in Ankara, according to KYPE sources.
Ankara's motto for exploratory negotiations is “everything on the table” from the beginning, and although there seems to be no agreement on what will eventually be on the table, the two sides are moving forward.
In fact, for a few weeks now, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu, in order to be more convincing, has been proposing the argument that “everything that was discussed in the previous 60 rounds will be discussed in the 61st round”. While Athens is reluctant to discuss anything beyond the continental shelf and the EEZ, Ankara fears first and foremost the expansion of the 12 nautical miles in the Aegean following Athens' decision to extend its territorial waters in the Ionian Sea to 12 nautical miles. this and wants to put the issue at the top of the agenda.
He also raises as a key issue now the demilitarization of the islands that have a demilitarized regime under the Treaty of Lausanne, even raising the issue of questioning their sovereignty, while Athens does not fulfill its commitments, as the Turkish side claims.
He also raises the issue of Greek airspace, constantly invoking that nowhere in the world does any country have six nautical miles of territorial waters and ten nautical miles of airspace. However, in his last statement during the press conference with his German counterpart Haiko Maas, the Turkish Foreign Minister codified the problems between Greece and Turkey which should be put on the table as follows: “Aegean, territorial waters, airspace, issues related to sea as a field of maritime jurisdiction “.
Ankara has hardened its position in the Greek-Turkish and Cyprus issues in the last two years, getting closer and closer to the extreme positions of the Turkish opposition, which in fact continues to push for even more extreme positions.
ΚΥΠΕ
