Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed a view that all treaties, such as the landmark 1923 Lausanne Treaty, need to be updated, in statements given as part of an interview with Athens-based Skai TV.
The Lausanne treaty normalized relations at the time between the Greek state and the nascent republic of Turkey, following the end of WWI, the Greco-Turkish war and an exchange of populations (based on religious affiliation) between the two sides.
The previously taped interview was aired on Wednesday evening, a day before Erdogan arrives in Greece for a two-day official visit.
“Greece may be bothered by certain issues, but we can sit down and discussed them,” he said.
Asked about the issue of nine Turkish officers and NCOs that have requested political asylum in Greece in the face of repeated requests by Ankara for extradition, the powerful Turkish president said he was promised by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in a telephone conversation with the latter just after a failed July 2015 coup in Turkey, that “…in 15 to 20 days they would be extradited to Turkey from Greece.”
