GREEK PRIME MINISTER TO VISIT TURKEY FIRST TIME IN PAST 50 YEARS

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.01.2008 15:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis flies
to Turkey today for the first official visit by a Greek leader in
nearly 50 years.

"I will be the first Greek Prime Minister to visit Turkey after a
48-year pause. Mr Erdogan and I will have a chance to focus of the
Greek Turkish relations and their future," Karamanlis said.

As reported by the TDN, speaking to the Greek parliament last
week, Kostas Karamanlis explained the real meaning of his trip to
Turkey, and the real meaning of Greek-Turkish relations: "Greece and
Turkey," he said "have a very long history and a very long difficult
history. Our relations with Turkey are not straightforward; they have
their ups and their downs. They have moments of tension and moments
of abatement. There have been several efforts since the time of Kemal
Ataturk and Eleftherios Venizelos, some went better some went worse."

"We follow a strategy with the eye to the future and not as a hostage
of the past. We are looking for a gradual restoration of mutual
trust. We are working on the full normalization of our bilateral
relations, which, of course, presupposes, a solution on the Cyprus
issue. With these crystal clear thoughts, this return visit of mine
to Turkey is being planned. There is neither excessive optimism
nor pessimism. There is realism. There is a sense of duty," he
said. "Ankara should normalize relations with Cyprus and recognize it."