Bagis pays a non-official visit to Greece

EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis yesterday met with Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Dimas and Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos as part of a non-official visit to Greece. Speaking after the meeting, Bagis said that they held a friendly meeting with Dimas with the participation of Turkey's Ambassador to Greece Kerim Uras. Stating that he has met Dimas when he was the EU Environment Commissioner, Bagis said that they have enjoyed the honor of opening the chapter of environment to membership talks in the past. Bagis added that they have discussed regional and bilateral issues during their meeting and that he has conveyed Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's kind greetings to them. In reply to a question about the statements made by former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz with regard to forest fires in Greece, Bagis said that the two countries did not need to blame each other, as relevant investigations were conducted on the issue at that time. Bagis added that recalling those incidents would only bring back unpleasant memories and that Turkish-Greek relations were currently better than they were in 1990s.