Ahmet Gençtürk
17 February 2023•Update: 18 February 2023
ATHENS
Greece’s prime minister said Thursday that the climate emerging following last week’s earthquakes in southern Türkiye can serve as an opportunity to redefine relations with Ankara.
For Greece, standing with Türkiye and Syria was purely a humanitarian task which did not serve any foreign policy purposes, said Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview with public broadcaster ERT.
Asked about the prospects for bilateral relations with Ankara, he said the “earthquakes could present an opportunity to redefine relations between Greece and Türkiye.”
It also can allow to redefine relations between Türkiye and the European Union as a whole, Mitsotakis noted, adding the ultimate decision will be made by the Turkish leadership.
He argued, however, that countries do not change their foreign policies overnight.
Mitsotakis continued by maintaining that Türkiye would need strong European support to recover from the damage it endured as a result of the quakes.
“And we want to do everything in our power to help the Turkish people and Türkiye get back on their feet. It is also for the benefit of our national interests," he added.
At least 38,044 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said early Friday.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.
