Turkey aims to enhance friendship with Greece: Yıldırım

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Turkey's Parliament Speaker Binali Yıldırım said on Feb. 2 the country aimed to “enhance friendship” and “reduce animosity” between Ankara and Athens.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul after commemoration of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey after World War I, Yıldırım said the two countries share a common history and culture despite on and off disputes in the Aegean Sea.

His remarks come ahead of a two-day visit by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Feb. 5-6.

Yıldırım added that Tsipras would be hosted with “Turkish hospitality.”

Tsipras is expected to be the first Greek leader to visit a former Christian Orthodox seminary located on one of the Princes' Islands off the Istanbul coast.

In 1996, a decades-long dispute between Turkey and Greece over uninhabited Aegean islets brought the two countries to the brink of armed conflict and has since led to renewed tensions.