ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned New Democracy Party leader Costas Karamanlis who won the general elections in Greece on Tuesday evening.
''Turkey-Greece relations recorded very significant progress during the previous government in Greece and a cooperation process had started. I believe that this process will continue during your term in office,'' told Erdogan to Karamanlis on the phone.
Erdogan phoned New Democracy Party leader Karamanlis and PASOK leader George Papandreou the same evening. Congratulating Karamanlis for his success in the elections, Erdogan stressed the importance of Turkey's and Greece's acting together in Cyprus issue. Erdogan expressed Turkey's desire of holding the quartet summit among the two sides in Cyprus, and guarantor states Turkey and Greece, at the highest political level.
Thanking Erdogan, Karamanlis said that he attributed great importance to Turkish-Greek relations and friendship, adding that a very strong government was founded in Greece and in that new period Turkish-Greek relations would also strengthen.
Noting that the new government in Greece would do its utmost for solution of Cyprus problem which continued for 40 years, Karamanlis told Erdogan that ''we expect you to Athens.'' The two prime ministers approved the determination of the date of Erdogan's visit to Athens through diplomatic channels.
Prime Minister Erdogan also called PASOK leader George Papandreou and told him that important progress was recorded in Turkish-Greek relations when PASOK government was in power in Greece. Thanking Papandreou for his efforts in that regard, Erdogan said that Papandreou contributed significantly to that progress in bilateral relations.
Papandreou said in his part that PASOK became a strong opposition in Greece, adding that they attributed great importance to development of Turkish-Greek relations and that they, as the opposition in Greece, would launch efforts to further improve the bilateral relations.
(Öª) 09.03.2004