Dendias to meet Erdogan, Cavusoglu amid intractable disagreements in exploratory talks

By George Gilson

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlet Cavusoglu, in Ankara tomorrow in a bid to transcend the apparent quagmire in bilateral exploratory talks.

The last-minute invitation for Dendias to meet Erdogan was announced by the Greek foreign ministry this evening and was viewed by analysts in Athens as a bid by Ankara to express resolve in its effort to upgrade to a higher, political level ongoing exploratory talks between diplomats and to pressure Athens to accept negotiations on a series of Turkish demands that Greece has steadfastly rejected until now.

It is unclear whether Dendias and Erdogan will discuss a possible summit meeting betweem Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Turkish leader, which was touted by some as a prospect in the past.

While the meeting with Cavusoglu had been scheduled earlier, Erdogan's surprise move to meet Dendias comes straight on the heels of his snub of European Commission President Ursula van Der Leyen at an EU-Turkey summit last week, when she was relegated to a remote sofa while European Council President Charles Michel was seated in a large armchair by the Turkish leader's side.

The unprecedented snub was roundly criticised by certain EU leaders, most notably Italian PM Mario Draghi, who publicly called Erdogan a "dictator".

Dendias' talks with Cavusoglu and Erdogan will take place in the shadow of a recent barrage of hostile statements from the Turkish leadership, including Erdogan's suggestion this week that Turkey is prepared even for a military intervention in Cyprus if Nicosia does not meet its demands for essentially a two-state settlement on the Turkish-occupied island and Ankara's...