In statements after their meeting at the Athens City Hall, the mayors of the two cities, Kostas Bakoyannis and Ekrem İmamoğlu, expressed the belief that Athens and Constantinople can build bridges of peace and work together to solve the problems facing Greece and Turkey, as well as those that go beyond the borders of the two countries.
Bakoyannis stressed that “problems are solved from the bottom up. People create them and people solve them.
Even if they are created by governments or, to be precise, regimes, they can be solved by the people.”
Referring to city diplomacy, he said that “our differences are real, but local government is the closest democratic institution to the citizen and this allows us to be able to interpret human emotions more effectively.
Those feelings that manifested in our societies with the disastrous fires that hit our countries in the summer, as well as with the strong earthquakes that took place a few years ago.”
On his part, Imamoglou noted that Constantinople and Athens are two cities that are connected by a common destiny and must find together solutions to the problems faced by Greece and Turkey.
“Friendship between the two countries is not one of the solutions, it is the only solution,” the mayor of Constantinople stressed.
Greek PM met mayors of Constantinople and Athens at the Maximos Mansion
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday received visiting Constantinople Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was accompanied by Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, at the Maximos Mansion.
According to government sources, the two mayors and the prime minister discussed possible cooperation between the two cities in areas of mutual interest, such as in culture and responding to the challenges of the climate crisis.
Source: ANA-MPA
