Greek Chief of General Staff Gen. Dimitrios Grapsas met with his Turkish counterpart, Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, during a visit to Ankara yesterday, but the visit coincided with a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry criticizing the participation of Greek government authorities in activities held in commemoration of an alleged genocide of Anatolian Greeks during and in the aftermath of World War I.
The ministry did not say which government officials participated in the activities, reported Todayszaman.
It said, however, that official representation in the activities revealed the Greek government's backing for anti-Turkey allegations and harmed "the atmosphere of peace and confidence" that the two nations were trying to build. In 1994 the Greek Parliament endorsed a law backing claims that Pontic Greeks were subject to genocide in Anatolia and instituting May 19 as the official day of commemoration for the incidents.
Büyükanıt said politicians of the two neighboring countries could have a better chance for dialog if the militaries do their part. "People assume that soldiers are there for war, but they are good at building peace as well," Büyükanıt said as he received his Greek counterpart, citing 1933 remarks by the Turkish Republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, during a meeting with the Greek ambassador to Turkey. "If we can provide the security, politicians can have better dialog."
"Turkey and Greece are lucky to have had great leaders like Atatürk and [Greek statesman Eleftherios] Venizelos. They worked hard for peace between the two nations after the war," Grapsas said, adding, "Our duty is to remain on the same path, in their footsteps." After decades of tension, during which they nearly came to war three times over disputes about territorial rights in the Aegean, Turkey and Greece witnessed a rapprochement following a deadly earthquake in western Turkey in 1999 that sparked an outpouring of sympathy between the two nations. In 1996 the two countries launched a set of measures designed to boost confidence between the people of the two countries and help tackle their territorial disputes in the Aegean.
The measures, announced by then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül and his Greek counterpart, Dora Bakoyannis, in İstanbul, included the establishment of a direct telephone line between the military chiefs of staff of the two countries and mutual visits and regular contacts between the commanders of the countries' coast guards.