By Ahmet Gencturk
ATHENS (AA) - The ongoing crisis in the Middle East caused by the Israeli-Palestine conflict will have a positive effect on Turkish-Greek relations, the Greek deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.
"I read a lot of analyses in the newspapers that the crisis in the Middle East will negatively affect the Greek-Turkish dialogue. I am of the opposite opinion that it will affect him positively," Alexandra Papadopoulou said in a speech at a conference in Athens, according to public broadcaster ERT.
“Because both Türkiye and Greece, regardless of the different approaches, the different goals, and the different worldviews they may have, have a common interest: They cannot live in an exploding region and the explosion right now in the Middle East concerns both of us,” she said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis affirmed the "positive climate" in relations during a meeting in September in New York.
The leaders confirmed the roadmap and timeline of bilateral contacts as agreed in an earlier meeting of foreign ministers in Ankara.