Greek FM: Let's make use of our 'lucky dice'

Turkey and Greece should resolve their problems peacefully by creating common interests in the region, making use of the ?God-given? opportunity of being neighboring countries, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has said. 

?Turkey and Greece; Allah has made the decision, they are together in the same part of the world.  God was playing backgammon and he rolled a double-six. He gave six to Turkey and six to us. We have to find ways to use the good results of God?s game of backgammon,? Kotzias said in the southern Turkish province of Antalya, where he was attending at NATO Foreign Ministers? meeting on May 13.

He called on the two sides not to become ?prisoners of the history.? 

?I told Turkish delegations: ?Let?s not be prisoners of history.? We have to use history as a positive element for the future,? Kotzias told Hürriyet Daily News.

A non-partisan professor, who has served in the Greek Foreign Ministry since 1993, Kotzias was an adviser to former Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, one of the key actors in initiating a long period of Turkish-Greek rapprochement. Papandreou was one of the prime movers behind the 1999 Helsinki agreement, which regulated Turkey?s candidacy status for EU membership.

?Over 25 years, I have not been somebody asking to attack Turkey. I am someone who has worked for peaceful solutions between the two countries. We don?t always have the same interests, but there are areas where we have a common interest. We must work based on these,? Kotzias said.

However, lingering disputes over the Aegean remain a stumbling block in relations between Ankara and Athens, with fighter jets of the two countries even involved in a dogfight during Kotzias? visit to Ankara on May 12.

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