Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will visit Athens next week, as reported by the Turkish media.
As reported by the newspaper Yeni Safak, the meeting will take place next Monday, May 31, in Athens, where the two foreign ministers will discuss the relations between the two countries and will prepare the meeting of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Turkish President, Tayyip Recep Erdogan.
The pro-government newspaper described today the forthcoming meeting as “important” and “preparatory” to the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting at the NATO summit on June 14.
In other words, it announced a meeting between the Greek prime minister and the Turkish president within 20 days.
As it is reported, in addition to being a return visit to Dendias’s visit to Ankara on April 15, the visit of the Turkish foreign minister to Athens also aims to prepare for the meeting of the two leaders of Greece and of Turkey in mid-June as reported by ethnos.gr.
“Ankara tension will not be transferred”
However, according to Yeni Safak, the tension between the two foreign ministers in Ankara is not expected to be transferred to Athens, while the Muslim minority of Thrace will be high on the agenda of the meeting between Dendias-Çavuşoğlu, especially after the statements of Kyriakos Mitsotakis for “Greek children” and “Pomak villages,” as the newspaper reported.
“The attempt of the Athens government to create an artificial identity for the Turkish minority in Western Thrace is one of the issues that must be raised at the meeting.
The description of the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the inhabitants of the area ‘Pomak villages’ and ‘Greeks’ provoked a great reaction and was seen as ‘denial of the Turkish identity of the minority’ and ‘attempt to create an artificial identity’,” the article notes.