Gerapetritis: Issues of sovereignty cannot be put on the dialogue table

Ahead of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' visit to Ankara on Monday and asked on the Greek expectations from Mitsotakis' meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Gerapetritis noted that we "should enter in a logic of normalisation of the relation between Greece and Turkiye in order to be able to talk without this, necessarily, to be considered a major issue". 

He also pointed out that "recently we have established good communication channels in such a way that disagreements, which obviously exist, do not produce crises".

Asked if we are at the beginning of some kind of approach on the issues of the Aegean, the foreign minister says that in the last year we have managed to have a relative calm in our region, but we have not yet reached the point of discussing the only difference that could be brought before us international jurisdiction. "It is important that we have basically no violations of our airspace, just as it is important that there is coordination to limit and almost eliminate the illegal migration flows. On the other hand we are working on the positive agenda on mutual beneficial measures  in order to be able to have positive results in many policy fields. We have not yet reached the point of discussing our only dispute, which can be brought before international jurisdiction, that is, the delimitation of the continental shelf and the EEZ", Gerapetritis said.

He pointed out that Greece's desire would be to be able to resolve the issue of the delimitation of the continental shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone and, if this is not possible, for this issue to bring ourselves before international jurisdiction when the appropriate conditions exist.
 
Regarding the conversion of the Chora Monastery into a mosque, Gerapetritis said that "it is disappointing in the phase we are in, in a phase where we are trying to build trust and mutual understanding, to have such events"  underlining that beyond of the highest symbolism for Greece, the Monastery of Chora is a Byzantine monument of incomparable value and the alteration of its universal character "constitutes a mistake which should not have happened".