ABTTF President: “We expect the same good will and intent from our country in solving the issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, and we demand that our country’s rulers act sincerely and establish a direct dialogue with us to solve our issues’’.
The President of our motherland, the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the Prime Minister of our country Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, met in the margins of the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in New York, USA, on 20 September 2023.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries Hakan Fidan and Giorgos Gerapetritis, Chief Foreign Policy and Security Advisor to the President Ambassador Akif Çağatay Kılıç and Prime Minister’s Office Diplomacy Bureau Chief Anna Maria Bura were also present at the meeting held closed to the press at the Turkish House.
During the meeting, Erdoğan and Mitsotakis confirmed the current positive climate in relations between our motherland and our country and their determination to maintain it. The two leaders also confirmed the road map and timeline for contacts between the two countries, which were agreed upon at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Ankara on 5 September.
“The outcome of the meeting between the president of our motherland and the prime minister of our country in New York is very pleasing and positive. The compromise reached by the two leaders during the meeting was evaluated as a positive development by the largest opposition party of our country and made headlines in our country’s press. In bilateral relations, which have recently evolved in a positive direction, first the foreign ministers of our motherland and our country met in Ankara, and then President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Mitsotakis met in New York. As in both meetings, we expect the same good will and intent from our country in solving the issues of the Turkish community in Western Thrace, and we demand that our country’s rulers act sincerely and establish a direct dialogue with us to solve our issues. We hope and desire that the issues and problems related to our community will be discussed in bilateral contacts between our country and our motherland’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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