Fully prepared for all scenarios and in full consultation with the Greek Prime Minister, was Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias before his trip to Ankara.
The Greek side emphasizes that Dendias and Mitsotakis had met on Tuesday in order to prepare for the visit of the Greek Foreign Minister and emphasize that Athens has decided to raise all open issues directly, at every opportunity presented to it and in any environment.
According to Greek sources, the message of yesterday's visit was clear and did not only concern Turkey. In order for there to be a prospect of resolving disputes, everyone must respect international law. This is even more true for countries like Turkey, which want to have privileged relations with the EU. It is no coincidence, after all, that Nikos Dendias reiterated several times, during the press conference, the need to respect and align Turkey with European law and acquis.
The big question is what the next day will be. According to well-informed sources, who spoke to the Cyprus News Agency, the prospect of a Mitsotaki-Erdogan meeting in the near future is moving away.
Athens wants to maintain channels of communication and is waiting for Ankara's invitation for the next round of negotiations and the continuation of the political dialogue. At the same time, it states that it is ready for the adoption of a positive agenda by the EU, provided that the de-escalation in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean continues.
However, the opposition parties in Greece welcomed yesterday's stance of Nikos Dendias.
SYRIZA acknowledged that N. Dendias rightly highlighted the Greek positions, however he also criticized the government stating that it suffers from a lack of strategy. "Today's meeting of the Greek Foreign Minister with his Turkish counterpart highlighted once again the need for our diplomacy to regain the initiative of the movements, with a strategy with a beginning, middle and end to defend our sovereign rights and build a positive agenda at bilateral and Euro-Turkish level. The forced promotion of the permanent Greek and European positions, after a long period of escalating violations of the sovereign rights of Greece and the Republic of Cyprus by Turkey, which was rightly carried out by Foreign Minister Mr. Dendias, does not fill this gap. It does not replace the attitude of the government and the Prime Minister, which for a year and a half has been characterized by embarrassment and a lack of strategy. "Greece must set its own agenda on the issues that concern it and not act by simply responding to challenges, initiatives or actions of its neighbor," the statement said.
For his part, KINAL spoke of a "self-evident" move by the Greek Foreign Minister, but raised the question of whether the government went to Ankara prepared. "Apart from the obvious, the formulation of our country's positions by the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the interview with Mr. Tsavousoglou, questions arise. How well prepared was the meeting? What was the goal? What was discussed in the individual meetings? We are waiting for an official information from the government ", says Ch. Trikoupi.
On the other hand, the Hellenic Solution in a statement stressed that Mr. Dendias "responded to the Turkish claims with an apologetic style, without making a single Greek claim." He accused the government of "trying to embellish its failure on national issues, at a time when Turkey is making complete, exploiting failures such as Mr Dendias' visit, which should never have taken place".
The KKE claimed that the "bazaar" is being upgraded and a compromise is being prepared for joint exploitation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean.