EUR
enNew era in relations with Greece and 7-day visa-free visit to Greek islands for Turkish citizens
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Athens to attend the fifth meeting of the Turkey-Greece High Level Cooperation Council. During the visit, the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborliness was signed. The declaration aims to boost bilateral relations through the existing institutional mechanisms. It should be noted that Erdogan last visited Greece in 2017. During the visit, Erdogan met with Greek President Katerina Sakelaropoulou and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Below are the main talking points of the meeting:
Erdogan:
We had extremely useful meetings, we discussed many burning topics and we plan to get together at least once a year.
We want to set an example to the world with the actions that Turkey and Greece will take. There are no problems between us that cannot be solved. We sincerely wish to solve the current problems through constructive dialog, good-neighborliness and joint efforts within the framework of international law.
We particularly welcomed the closure of Camp Lavrion. I emphasized that measures should be taken to prevent the emergence in Greece of similar camps providing safe havens for terrorists.
We noted the importance of transportation projects, such as the construction of a second bridge at the Ipsala-Kipi border crossing.
Mitsotakis:
We decided to revitalize our relations and set a goal to increase bilateral trade to 10 billion dollars. We discussed visa-free travel and will restore the 7-day visa-free visit to the Greek islands for Turkish citizens.
We discussed Greece's support for Turkey in the European process.
We discussed visa exemption for students.
Also, the heads of the Greek and Turkish coast guards agreed to set up a 24-hour hotline to deal with illegal migration in the region.
Greek islands that Turkish citizens can visit without a visa:
Lemnos
Lesvos
Chios
Samos
Leros
Kalymnos
Kos
Rhodes
Symi
Kastelorissia
The maximum stay is 7 days.
