Greek–Turkish relations

Last week, Greece and Turkey embarked on a difficult journey, the safe navigation of which is not guaranteed. 

Following the Turkey-EU agreement aimed at curbing the flow of refugees/migrants, the two countries will now jointly try to manage a practically enormous and legally controversial issue which has already been met with a lot of criticism worldwide. 

Ten Turkish fighter jets and one CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft entered Athens’ FIR on Monday without submitting a flight plan violating the Greek airspace 24 times in the Aegean.

Athens’ FIR also recorded six more violations of air traffic rules.

In two cases, the intercepting of two armed fighter jets by two Greek aircraft developed into a dogfight.

Turkey is set to begin taking back illegal migrants crossing into Greece as of March 20, and the returns will start as of April 4, a senior Turkish official has said. 

In the joint press conference following the bilateral meeting between the Greek delegation and the Turkish one in Smyrna, Turkey, within the framework of the Hellenic-Turkish ministerial Council, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras stated that the top priority at this point for both countries was to save the lives of those refugees crossing the Aegean Sea.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrived in Izmir, Turkey, shortly after 1pm on Tuesday and he met with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Their meeting takes places just a few hours after EU summit on refugee held in Brussels concluded.

The Greek side appeared satisfied with the outcomes of the EU summit on refugee held on Monday in Brussels, although no final decision was taken.

EU leaders announced that the final decision on refugee will be taken at next meeting to take place on March 17-18, where many points of Turkey’s proposal will be clarified.

Fourteen Turkish fighter jets, two maritime patrol aircraft and five helicopters, entered Athens’ FIR on Tuesday without submitting a flight plan, the Defence ministry announced in a press release.

In total, Athens recorded 10 violations of air traffic rules which developed into 3 violations of Greek airspace in the northeastern and southeastern Aegean.

One of the most important results of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Ankara on Feb. 8 was the announcement of a Turkish-German initiative to request NATO to provide assistance to the Turkish and Greek coast guards in their fight against the illegal trafficking of migrants via the Aegean Sea. 

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Stenmeir had a working dinner with Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias on Saturday evening where they discussed bilateral relations, the refugees issue, the crises in several regions as well as the Cyprus issue.

Greece's President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Jan. 18 accused Turkish border authorities of facilitating people smuggling by turning a blind eye to the trafficking of thousands of migrants to Europe.