Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias on Sunday afternoon warmly welcomed his visiting Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Athens, with an official dinner given in the latter’s honor at a well-known restaurant with a view to the southern side of the Acropolis.
The meeting came hours after Cavusoglu concluded a closely watched “private visit” to the northeast Greek city of Komotini, with hosts the largest concentration of Muslim minority community members in the Thrace province. It was the visit to Komotini that attracted heightened attention during the day, after the latest round of provocative statements by official Turkey claiming that the Muslims of Thrace constitute a “Turkish minority”.
A Greek foreign ministry spokesman, in fact, in reply to comments by Cavusoglu from Thrace, merely reiterated that Greece fully implements its obligations as emanating from the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), with refers specifically and clearly to a Muslim minority in Thrace.
The two ministers will again meet on Monday at the foreign ministry in central Athens, followed by contacts with expanded diplomatic delegations. A press conference is expected afterwards.
In a latter announcement, main opposition SYRIZA party emphasized that every Turkish official who visits Thrace is obliged to respect the Treaty of Lausanne “and not engage in inflammatory statements… if anything, he (Cavusoglu) should remember the position expressed by the president of Turkey (RT Erdogan) during his visit to Athens in 2017, namely, that there is a Muslim minority in western Thrace that is Turkish, Pomak and roma in origin … necessary democratic reforms in Thrace involve obligations of the Greek state towards Greek citizens, not Greek-Turkish dialogue”.
