After historic visit, Greek, Turkish defense ministers to meet

In the wake of the visit by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Turkey, contacts between Athens and Ankara will continue next week in the context of Wednesday's NATO summit of defense ministers, where Evangelos Apostolakis and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar will discuss confidence-building measures.

At the same time, the foreign ministries of both countries will draft the procedures that will lead to preliminary talks with regard to the Cyprus peace process and the system of guarantees on the island. Both countries are guarantor powers of Cyprus.

Tsipras wrapped up his two-day visit to Turkey on Wednesday with a "highly symbolic" tour of the theological school on the island of Halki that was shut down by Turkish authorities in 1971 and the former Christian cathedral of Hagia Sophia.

Accompanied by the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, Tsipras...