Tsipras in Ankara meeting with Davutoglu

The two prime ministers were scheduled to hold a joint press conference after the end of the meeting, after which Tsipras will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier today, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos (Bartholomew) stressed the need to confront the violence and to promote the interfaith dialogue, in their meeting in Istanbul.
Tsipras stressed the need for cooperation with Turkey saying that the issue is very high on the discussions agenda that he will have in Ankara later in the day. Both countries can cooperate and coordinate to stop the drama of the people that are drown every day a few metres off the Greek coasts and deal with this humanitarian problem.

The Ecumenical Patriarch referred to his meetings on Tuesday in Brussels with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and the European Union's Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini to whom he announced that in the first six months of 2016 a meeting with representatives of monotheistic religions will be held in Brussels in order to discuss the condition in the region. The European officials proposed the meeting to be broader with representatives and of other religions and Vartholomeos said that this meeting can be held in parallel.