Greece, Turkey mark a fresh start aimed at eventual parnership

The leaders of Greece and Turkey have billed the latter's landmark visit to Athens, during which they held a historic joint cabinet meeting and signed more than two dozen agreements, as the beginning of a historic new cooperation. “I am optimistic that the groundbreaking and courageous step we are taking today can bring results, precisely because the will exists,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said late on Friday during a joint news conference with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on his first trip to Greece since 2004. Papandreou said the tension in bilateral relations between the Aegean neighbors stemmed from mutual fears of aggression, which both sides should come to reject as relics of the past. Earlier, Erdogan and Papandreou, who was instrumental in easing Greek-Turkish hostility during his 1999-2004 tenure as foreign minister, chaired a first-ever joint Cabinet meeting, dubbed the high level cooperation council -- launching a series of annual meetings that will alternate between the two countries. The ministers signed 22 agreements, on issues from energy cooperation, protecting forests and combating illegal immigration, to promoting Greece and Turkey as joint destinations for Chinese tourists and advancing a gas pipeline dubbed ITGI that links Turkey, Greece and Italy. “The number and the depth of the agreements that we just signed is an indication, if not proof, of the historic nature of this visit,” Papandreou said. Erdogan said he was optimistic Turkey would reopen a Greek Orthodox seminary, meeting a key demand by the European Union to strengthen Ankara’s bid for membership in the bloc. But Erdogan also urged Greece to enhance freedoms for its Muslim minority in Thrace and restore a crumbling mosque in Athens currently used to store archaeological finds. Turkey’s 380-strong delegation in Athens on Friday included 10 Cabinet ministers and about 100 businessmen. Erdogan said he wanted to see bilateral trade increase to $6.25 billion. Last year, trade between the two countries stood at $2.6 billion, down from $3.4 billion in 2008.