The scheduling of talks to be held on 13 March in Istanbul between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the right move at the right time, even as Ankara is conducting a balancing act, attempting to serve as a mediator in the Russo-Ukrainian war and even hosting talks [between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers] in Antalya.

Athens should avail itself of the opportunity to stand on the side of legality and international law in all circumstances and to build a momentum from which it can benefit, if a consensus that one country cannot violate the sovereignty of another is established.

That is why the Greek side must be exceptionally careful in preparing the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting so as to secure the best possible results, knowing full well that the spokesman of the Turkish president’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) will not hesitate [as he did very recently] to raise issues such as Turkey’s revisionist claims regarding oil and gas exploration, the Aegean, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

It is imperative to make it perfectly clear that under no circumstances will Greece enter into a discussion of Ankara’s neo-Ottoman, expansionist “Blue Homeland” (Mavi Vatan in Turkish) doctrine, which disputes Greece’s maritime sovereignty as established by international law, at any level, especially at the highest.

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