BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen comments on the disputes between Turkey and Greece on the Aegean issue and possible ways to address it. A summary of his column is as follows:
Athens’ claims that Turkish military jets are violating Greek airspace over the Aegean, its complaints about this to NATO and the European Union and its aggressive statements against Ankara all caused tension last week. Some clamorous Greek newspapers gave the impression that the two countries were on the verge of a new crisis. Meanwhile, the statements made by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis and Foreign Minister George Papandreou, both of whom attach importance to the Ankara-Athens rapprochement, are making people ask if relations are getting worse. No similar incident has happened in the last few days, which has helped ease tensions somewhat. However, reactions and even threats are continuing to come from Greece. It can’t be a coincidence that this is happening on the eve of the EU’s Thessalonica summit.
In spite of the rapprochement between Turkey and Greece of the last few years, the basic disputes on the Aegean issue have ground things to a standstill, and negotiations on these problems have failed to yield fruit. In other words, Turkish-Greek relations have made enormous progress and our two countries have taken important steps in ‘confidence-building measures,’ but there’s not been even a single positive development on the Aegean issue. The disputes over territorial waters and airspace last week brought the current strife to the surface. Actually this isn’t the first time we’ve faced charges of ‘violations’ and ‘harassments’ from Greece. This time the reason behind Athens raising a ruckus – according to its claims – was that Turkey’s ‘violations’ had recently increased greatly and that a Turkish F-16 had harassed a Greek passenger plane.
So Greece alleged that Ankara’s stance came from its military and it started to use this argument as a trump card against our EU bid. Meanwhile, Ankara thinks that Greece began this campaign in order to strengthen its position on the Aegean issue, make the EU accept it and so back Turkey into a corner. Actually as long as Turkey and Greece fail to solve the basic issues on the Aegean and seek to strengthen their own position, these disputes and tensions will come up again and again. Therefore the two countries should benefit from mutual rapprochement in order to solve these problems. Avoiding deterioration in Turkish-Greek relations and starting a constructive dialogue towards this end both depend on the good will and determination of both countries. The Turkish and Greek prime ministers’ meeting to be held this week before the Thessalonica summit could be a good opportunity for such a process to begin.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION