Wednesday 19 August 2009

Greek - Turkish relations will they ever improve?

It is hard to believe that anything will ever change in the state of relations between Greece and its neighbour Turkey. Not hard either to see why. Do not forget Greece was under Turkish domination for almost five hundred years. There is little or no trust between the two peoples.
Add to this the problem of Cyprus where no solution is in sight. The northen part of the island belongs to Turkey since its occupation and the southern part is an independent country and a member of the Euroepan Union. No other countries, however, recognises northern Cyrpus as a country.
Here in Greece we get used to the daily reports of the Turkish airforce deliberately invading Greek airspace. Now we hear that Turkey has decided to start looking for oil reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean just off the coast of Northern Cyprus.
Secretly we all know that one of the major issues between the two countries is the reserves of oil that lie beneath the Aegean Sea and who can lay claim to these. However, one would think in the interests of Turkey wanting to become a member of the European Union in the foreseeable future it might be a good idea to at least try and improve relations with Greece. One thing is clear - without Greek approval Turkey will never be a member of the European Union.

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