NICOSIA: Greece and Cyprus on Monday welcomed moves by Turkiye to boost relations with the EU, but said rapprochement should be gradual and not unconditional. EU foreign ministers said on July 20 they were ready to re-engage with Turkiye, but stopped short of offering Ankara a clear resumption of membership talks.
Turkiye has been a candidate for EU membership for more than two decades, but talks stalled in 2016 over the bloc’s concerns over the rule of law and human rights in the country.
The division of Cyprus between its Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations, a source of friction between Greece and Turkiye, has also been an impediment.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, whose countries are both EU members, said they welcomed a Turkiye-EU re-engagement but that it had to be “gradual,” and, if necessary, “reversible.”
“Those two words should guide us. We can be optimistic, but we are not naive,” Mitsotakis told reporters after meeting Christodoulides in Nicosia, Cyprus’s ethnically split capital.
The two terms have been built into European terminology over Turkiye for some years, reflecting in part the long and convulsed journey of the country in attempting to join the bloc.
Christodoulides said launching a positive agenda with Turkiye also implied “positive moves” on Ankara’s part over Cyprus.
“It’s important that our EU partners are also taking the same view,” Christodoulides said.
