Greece’s new interlocutors in Turkey

New Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stands during a press conference where Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced the new cabinet, in Ankara, Turkey, on June 3, 2023. [Umit Bektas/Reuters]

The top jobs at the Foreign and Defense ministries in the new Turkish government have been filled by individuals who are no strangers to Greece, albeit for different reasons. 

The new foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, who is well-known in Athens for being Turkey's invisible diplomatic hand as the chief for many years of its potent intelligence agency, MIT, despite never having held any policy-making positions before.

Greece is also well aware of Fidan's crucial contribution as the head of MIT to the gradual rise of Turkish influence in Tripoli, resulting in the Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

Fidan is known as the man who laid the groundwork for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's major foreign engagements, especially in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

Needless to say, the move of Ibrahim Kalin, until recently Erdogan's spokesman, to the post of...

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