THE first official visit by a Turkish president to Greece for six decades got off to a tense start yesterday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan alarmed his Greek hosts after repeating comments about the need to “update” the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that delineated the borders of modern Turkey, among other issues.
Erdogan’s first meeting was with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the televised discussions between the two men, usually reserved for pleasantries and formalities before closed-door talks, were visibly awkward.
The presidents engaged in a thinly veiled verbal spat over the Muslim minority in north-eastern Greece and the treaty.
Erdogan’s two-day visit to Greece includes a trip to north-eastern Greece to meet with the community, which Greece recognises only as a religious minority.
The status of the community, which Turkey considers to be a Turkish minority, was also determined by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Erdogan has made similar comments before, but repeating them on the eve of his visit “raises serious concerns and questions”, Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.
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