Greece–Turkey relations

Greece–Turkey relations

Greece	Turkey
Diplomatic mission
Embassy of Greece, Ankara	Embassy of Turkey, Athens

Relations between Greece and the Turkey states have been marked by alternating periods of mutual hostility and reconciliation ever since Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. Since then, the two countries have faced each other in four major wars—the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the First Balkan War (1912–1913), the First World War (1914–1918), and finally the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), which were followed by the Greco-Turkish population exchange and a period of friendly relations in the 1930s and 1940s. Both countries entered NATO in 1952. Relations deteriorated again after the 1950s due to the 1955 Istanbul pogrom, the Cyprus issue, and the expulsion of the Istanbul Greeks in the 1960s, the Bloody Christmas in 1963, the 1974 Cypriot coup d'etat, immediately followed by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the Imia/Kardak military crisis in 1996 and subsequent military confrontations over the Aegean dispute. A period of relative normalization began after 1999 with the so-called "earthquake diplomacy", which notably led to a change in the previously firmly negative stance of the Greek government on the issue of the accession of Turkey to the European Union. As of 2022, military tensions have risen again due to conflicts over maritime zones in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. However, Greece and Turkey remain in NATO, with a history of participation in alliance operations such as the Korea, Afghanistan, Libya and other NATO operations.

Diplomatic missions

The first official diplomatic contacts between Greece and the Ottoman Empire occured in 1830. Consular relations between Greece and the Ottoman Empire were established in 1834. A embassy opened in 1853 in Istanbul, discontinued during periods of crisis after and eventually transferred to the new capital Ankara in 1923 when Turkey was formed.

• Turkey's missions in Greece include its embassy in Athens and consulates general in Thessaloniki, Komotini and Rhodes.
• Greece's missions in Turkey include its embassy in Ankara and consulates general in Istanbul, İzmir and Edirne.

Background

Historical overview of the region

For three thousand years, the land that comprises modern Greece and modern Turkey before their division as nation states had a long shared history.

Modern day Greece is territory that was during the classical period mostly controlled by Ancient Greek city states and kingdoms (900–146 BC), the Macedonian Empire (335–323 BC) and subsequent Hellenistic States (323–146 BC) following by the Roman era starting with the Roman Republic (146–27 BC), then the Roman Empire (27 BC–395 AD), and in the medieval period the Byzantine Empire (395–1204, 1261–1453) before the conquest by the Ottoman Empire until the Greek revolution that formed Greece.

The Greek presence in Asia Minor dates at least from the Late Bronze Age (1450 BC). Starting around 1200 BC, the coast of Turkey's Anatolia was heavily settled by Aeolian and Ionian Greeks, by the 6th century BC conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then 334 Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire followed by the Hellenistic States and the Roman era (Roman Republic, Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire), the subsequent colonisation by Turkic people with powers such as the Seljuq Empire (1037–1194), the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum (1077–1307) and the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923) until its defeat during World War 1 and the subsequent Turkish revolution that formed Turkey.

The Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire, although different regimes to the modern nations of Greece and Turkey, factor into the nations' modern relations as heritage. Some academics claim Turkey is not a successor state but the legal continuation of the Ottoman Empire as a Republic.

Byzantine and Göktürk relations: 6th–7th centuries

See also: Third Perso-Turkic War, Pannonian Avars § Avars and pseudo-Avars, Nushibi, and Western Turkic Khaganate

The Göktürks of the First Turkic Khaganate, which came to prominence in 552 CE, were the first Turkic state to use the name Türk politically. They played a major role with the Byzantine Empire's relationship with the Persian Sasanian Empire. The first contact is believed to be 563 and relates to the incident in 558 where the slaves of the Turks (the Pannonian Avars) ran away during their war with the Hephthalites.

The second contact occurred when Maniah, a Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi (known as Silziboulos in Greek writings) of the Göktürks to send an embassy directly to the Byzantine Empire's capital Constantinople, which arrived in 568 and offered silk as a gift to emperor Justin II. While the Sogdians were only interested in trade, the Turks in the embassy proposed an alliance against the Persians which Justin agreed to. The Persians had previously broken their alliance with the Turks due to the competitive threat they represented. This alliance guaranteed the arrival of west-bound silks from China and increased the risk of a war on two fronts for the Persians, with hostilities that would eventuate with the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591. In 569 an embassy led by Zemarchus occurred which was well received and likely solidified their alliance for war.

Another set of embassies occurred in 575–576 led by Valentine which were received with hostility by Turxanthos due to alleged treachery. They required the members of the Byzantine delegation at the funeral of Istämi to lacerate their faces to humiliate them. The subsequent hostility shown by the new ruler Tardu would be matched in Byzantine writings. With the insults reflecting a breakdown of the alliance, the likely cause is that the anger was due to the Turks not having their expectations met from their agreements and realising they were being used when they no longer aligned with the current goals of the Byzantine Empire (who correspondingly lacked trust in the Turks as partners).

Years later, they would collaborate again when their interest aligned. The Turks attacked the Avars when they sacked a Byzantine city in the Balkans (Anchialos in 584). Toward the end of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the Turks allied with the Byzantine Empire and played a decisive role with the Third Perso-Turkic War.

Byzantine and Seljuk-Ottoman relations: 11th–15th centuries

Main articles: Byzantine–Ottoman Wars and Byzantine–Seljuk wars

The Seljuk Turks was a Sunni Muslim dynasty from the Qiniq branch of the Oghuz Turks. They gradually became Persianate and contributed to the Turco-Persian tradition in the medieval Middle East and Central Asia. The Seljuks established both the Seljuk Empire and the Sultanate of Rum, which at their heights stretched from modern day Iran to Anatolia, and were targets of the First Crusade.

Byzantine territory (purple), Byzantine campaigns (red) and Seljuk campaigns (green)

• After the conquest of territories in present-day Iran by the Seljuq Empire, a large number of Oghuz Turks arrived on the Byzantine Empire's borderlands of Armenia in the late 1040s. Eager for plunder and distinction in the path of jihad, they began raiding the Byzantine provinces in Armenia. At the same time, the eastern defenses of the Byzantine Empire had been weakened by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042–1055), who allowed the thematic troops (provincial levies) of Iberia and Mesopotamia to relinquish their military obligations in favour of tax payments. As a consequence of this invasion, the Battle of Kapetron occurred in 1048.
• Over the next century, the Byzantine and Seljuk armies would fight many battles, with the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 considered a turning point in the history of Anatolia. The legacy of this defeat would be the loss of the Byzantine Empire's Anatolian heartland. The battle itself did not directly change the balance of power between the Byzantines and the Seljuks; however the ensuing civil war within the Byzantine Empire did, to the advantage of the Seljuks.
• Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, worried about the advances of the Seljuks in the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert of 1071 who had reached as far west as Nicaea, sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza in March 1095 to ask Pope Urban II for aid against the invading Turks. What followed was the First Crusade.
• The Seljuk sultans bore the brunt of the Crusades and eventually succumbed to the Mongol invasion at the 1243 Battle of Köse Dağ. For the remainder of the 13th century, the Seljuks acted as vassals of the Ilkhanate. Their power disintegrated during the second half of the 13th century. The last of the Seljuk vassal sultans of the Ilkhanate, Mesud II, was murdered in 1308.

The dissolution of the Seljuk state left behind many small Turkish principalities. Among them were the Ottoman dynasty, which originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks in 1299, and which eventually conquered the rest and reunited Anatolia to become the Ottoman Empire. Over the next 150 years, the Byzantine–Ottoman wars were a series of decisive conflicts between the Ottoman Turks and Byzantines that led to the final destruction of the Byzantine Empire and the dominance of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1453, the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. They followed by conquering its splinter states, such as the Despotate of the Morea in 1460, the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, and the Principality of Theodoro in 1475.

Ottoman and Romioi/Rum relations: 1453–1821

See also: Names of the Greeks, Background of the Greek War of Independence, and Greek Plan

A map of the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire from 1307 to 1683.

All of modern Greece by the time of the capture of the Desporate of the Morea was under Ottoman authority, with the exception of some of the islands.

• Islands such as Rhodes (1522), Cyprus (1571), and Crete (1669) resisted longer due to other empires that came into power from the Frankokratia days
• The Ionian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception of Kefalonia (from 1479 to 1481 and from 1485 to 1500), and remained under the rule of the Republic of Venice until their capture by the First French Republic in 1797, then passed to the United Kingdom in 1809 until their unification with Greece in 1864.
• The mountains of Greece were largely untouched, and were a refuge for Greeks who desired to flee Ottoman rule and engage in guerrilla warfare.
• In 1770, the Ottoman army invaded the Mani, one of a series of battles by the Ottomans to subdue the Maniots. The Ottoman's would attempt again in 1803, 1807 and 1815.

Life under the Ottoman Empire had several dimensions

• All conquered Orthodox Christians would be included in the Rum Millet (millet-i Rûm) or the "Roman nation", and enjoyed a certain autonomy. It was named after Roman ("Romioi" in Greek and "Byzantine" by modern historians) subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Christian Orthodox Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Georgians, Arabs, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and Serbs were all considered part of the same millet and the religious hierarchy was dominated by Greeks (but there is evidence that they had different names with Rum representing Greeks only).
• Devshirme was a child levy (in Greek: paidomazoma) which was emotionally traumatic for families. Boys were recruited and forcefully converted to Islam to serve the state but it was also done as a means to dismantle clan ties and dissolve traditions. Historian Constantine Paparrigopoulos estimated 1 million boys were recruited as Janissaries ; a figure closer to 1 in 40 is more likely.
• Dhimmi were subject to the heavy jizya tax, which was about 20%, versus the Muslim zakat, which was about 3%. Other major taxes were the Defter and İspençe and the more severe haraç, whereby a document was issued which stated that "the holder of this certificate is able to keep his head on the shoulders since he paid the Χαράτσι tax for this year..." All these taxes were waived if the person converted to Islam.

Romioi in various places of the Greek peninsula would at times rise up against Ottoman rule, taking advantage of wars the Ottoman Empire would engage in. Those uprisings were of mixed scale and impact.

• During the Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479), the Maniot Kladas brothers, Krokodelos and Epifani, were leading bands of stratioti on behalf of Venice against the Turks in Southern Peloponnese. They put Vardounia and their lands into Venetian possession, for which Epifani then acted as governor.
• Before and after the victory of the Holy League in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto a series of conflicts broke out in the peninsula such as in Epirus, Phocis (recorded in the Chronicle of Galaxeidi) and the Peloponnese, led by the Melissinos brothers and others. They were crushed by the following year. Short-term revolts on the local level occurred throughout the region such as the ones led by metropolitan bishop Dionysius the Philosopher in Thessaly (1600) and Epirus (1611).
• During the Cretan War (1645–1669), the Maniots would aid Francesco Morosini and the Venetians in the Peloponnese. Greek irregulars also aided the Venetians through the Morean War in their operations on the Ionian Sea and Peloponnese.
• A major uprising during that period was the Orlov Revolt (Greek: Ορλωφικά) which took place during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) and triggered armed unrest in both the Greek mainland and the islands.
• In 1778, a Greek fleet of seventy vessels assembled by Lambros Katsonis which harassed the Turkish squadrons in the Aegean sea, captured the island of Kastelorizo and engaged the Turkish fleet in naval battles until 1790.
• In 1803 there was a final fight between the Souliotes and the local Ottoman ruler, Ali Pasha, which ended the many years of conflicts between them.

Greek nationalism started to appear in the 18th century.

• Greek ethnic identity had fused with the Rum millet identity but after 1750 the enlightenment would inspire a new secular "Hellenic" identity of the Rum millet. There was a reconceptualisation of the Rum Millet from being Greek Orthodox religion adherents to all Greek speakers The French Revolution further intensified the growing battle between conservative and liberal Greek Orthodox elites and in the 1790–1800 decade a heated conflict broke out
• Despite Greek-speaking and non-Greek speaking Orthodox Christians at the time identifying as Romioi, one of the enlightenment intellectuals Adamantios Korais pushed the word Graikoi as a replacement as it helped disassociate it from the Roman heritage and the Church (as well as being an older word than Hellenes).
• Revolutionary instigator Rigas Velestinlis and the Filiki Eteria behind the 1821 uprising intended to have a Balkan Orthodox uprising and a coalition between all the different ethnic communities. The focus of revolution ideology was the division between the Muslim Ottoman privileged class Askeri with the second class citizens Rayah which was predominately Greek Orthodox.
• Ottoman authorities believed Russia's imperial agenda and the general weakness of the state rather than conscientious political action is why the Greek revolution started.

In March 1821, the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire began. In Constantinople, on Easter Sunday, the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, Gregory V, was publicly hanged although he had condemned the revolution and preached obedience to the Sultan in his sermons.

History

While the relations between Greeks and Turks can be traced to the 6th century, modern relations between the nation states formally starts with the creation of Greece in 1830 and with the creation of Turkey in 1923. Both of the modern states of Greece and Turkey were largely formed out of a struggle against the control or defeat of the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, the history of relations begins with the Greek war of independence in 1822.

Formation of Greece: 1822–1832

Main articles: Greek War of Independence and First Hellenic Republic

Territorial Expansion of Greece from 1832 to 1947

Building on the success of the first year of war, the Greek Constitution of 1822 would be the first of the new state, adopted at the first National Assembly at Epidaurus.

However, the Greek victories would be short-lived as civil war would weaken its ability to react; the Sultan called for aid from his Egyptian vassal Muhammad Ali, who dispatched his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with a fleet and 8,000 men, and later added 25,000 troops. Ibrahim's intervention proved decisive: much of the Peloponnese was reconquered in 1825; the gateway town of Messolonghi fell in 1826; and Athens was taken in 1827. The only territory still held by Greek nationalists was in Nafplion, Mani, Hydra, Spetses and Aegina. During this time, there were many massacres during the Greek War of Independence committed by both revolutionaries and the Ottoman Empire's forces.

The Treaty of London (1827) was declined by the Ottoman Empire, which led to the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The French Morea expedition between 1828 and 1833 would expel Egyptian troops from the Peloponnese and the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) which occurred in retaliation due to Russian support at Navarino, led to the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) which enforced the Treaty of London. Karl Marx in an article in the New York Tribune (21 April 1853), wrote: "Who solved finally the Greek case? It was neither the rebellion of Ali Pasha, neither the battle in Navarino, neither the French Army in Peloponnese, neither the conferences and protocols of London; but it was Diebitsch, who invaded through the Balkans to Evros".

The establishment of a Greek state was recognized in the London Protocol of 1828 but it was not until the London Protocol (1830), which amended the decisions of the 1829 protocol, that Greece was established as an independent, sovereign state. The assassination of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Greece's first governor, would lead to the London Conference of 1832 and that formed the Kingdom of Greece with the Treaty of Constantinople (1832).

The first borders of the Greek state consisted of the Greek mainland south of a line from Arta to Volos plus Euboea and the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. The rest of the Greek-speaking lands, including Crete, Cyprus and the rest of the Aegean islands, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace, remained under Ottoman rule. Over one million Greeks also lived in what is now Turkey, mainly in the Aegean region of Asia Minor, especially around Smyrna, in the Pontus region on the Black Sea coast, in the Gallipoli peninsula, in Cappadocia, in Istanbul, in Imbros and in Tenedos.

Kingdom of Greece and Ottoman Empire: 1832–1913

Main articles: Eastern Question, Megali Idea, Greco-Turkish War (1897), and Balkan Wars

The first Ottoman ambassador to the Greek Kingdom, the Phanariote Konstantinos Mousouros, at a ball in the royal palace in Athens

The relations between Greece and the Ottoman Empire during this time period were shaped by two concepts:

• Termed in history as the Eastern Question with regards to the "sick man of Europe", it encompassed myriad interrelated elements: Ottoman military defeats, Ottoman institutional insolvency, the ongoing Ottoman political and economic modernization programme, the rise of ethno-religious nationalism in its provinces, and Great Power rivalries.
• In Greek politics, the Megali Idea. It was an irredentist concept that expressed the goal of reviving the Byzantine Empire, by establishing a Greek state, which would include the large Greek populations that were still under Ottoman rule after the end of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1828) and all the regions that had large Greek populations (parts of the Southern Balkans, Asia Minor and Cyprus). The term was first introduced by Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Kolettis in 1844 in the inaugural speech of the first Greek constitution in front of Greece's parliament for a common destiny of all Greeks. During the Crimean war the following decade, it became a platform for territorial expansion. It came to dominate foreign relations and played a significant role in domestic politics for much of the first century of Greek independence.

There were five wars that directly and indirectly linked all conflict

• Crimean War (1854 to 1856). Britain and France prevented Greece from attacking the Ottomans by occupying Piraeus. The unsuccessful Epirus Revolt of 1854 tried to take advantage of this period.
• Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878): Greece was prevented from taking military action during this war in 1877, in which the Greeks were keen to join in with the objective of territorial expansion, but Greece was unable to take any effective part in the war. Nevertheless, after the Congress of Berlin, in 1881 Greece was given most of Thessaly and part of Epirus. The 1878 Greek Macedonian rebellion and Epirus Revolt of 1878 occurred during this period.
• Greco-Turkish War (1897): A new revolt in Crete led to the first direct war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. An unprepared Greek army was unable to dislodge the Ottoman troops from their fortifications along the northern border, and with the resulting Ottoman counter-attack, the war resulted in minor territorial losses for Greece.
• The two Balkan Wars (1912–1913): Four Balkan states, forming the Balkan League, defeated the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War (1912–1913). In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against all four original combatants of the first war. (It also faced an attack from Romania from the north.) The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. The First Balkan War had Greece seize Crete, the islands, the rest of Thessaly and Epirus, and coastal Macedonia from the Ottomans. Crete was once again the flashpoint for tension between the two nations. The Treaty of London ended the First Balkan war, but no one was left satisfied. The Treaty of Bucharest, concluded the Second Balkan War, which left Greece with southern Epirus, the southern-half of Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean islands, except for the Dodecanese, which had been occupied by Italy in 1911. These gains nearly doubled Greece's area and population.

Population of Greeks in Asia Minor after the Balkan Wars

The Young Turks, who seized power in the Ottoman Empire in 1908, were Turkish nationalists whose objective was to create a strong, centrally governed state. The Christian minorities of the Empire, including Greeks, saw their position in the Empire deteriorate.

Formation of Turkey: 1914–1923

Main articles: Ottoman Empire in World War I, Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), and Turkish War of Independence

Greece entered the First World War on the side of the Allies in the summer of 1917 following The Great Division between the King and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos The Ottoman Empire entered the War with the attack on Russia's Black Sea coast on 29 October 1914. The attack prompted Russia and its allies, Britain and France, to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 31 October 1918, ending the Ottoman participation in World War I.

With the Allies victory in World War I, Greece was rewarded with territorial acquisitions, specifically Western Thrace (Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine) and Eastern Thrace and the Smyrna area (Treaty of Sèvres). Greek gains were largely undone by the subsequent Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).

• Greece occupied Smyrna on 15 May 1919, while Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later Atatürk), who was to become the leader of the Turkish opposition to the Treaty of Sèvres, landed in Samsun on May 19, 1919, an action that is regarded as the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence. He united the protesting voices in Anatolia and set in motion a nationalist movement to repel the Allied armies that had occupied Turkey and establish new borders for a sovereign Turkish nation. The Turkish nation would be Western in civilization and elevated its Turkish culture (which had faded under Arab culture), which included disassociating Islam from Arab culture and restricted into the private sphere. Having created a separate government in Ankara, Kemal's government did not recognise the Treaty of Sèvres and fought to have it revoked.
• The Turkish army entered Smyrna/İzmir on 9 September 1922, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) in the field. The Greek army and administration had already left by sea. The war was put to an end by the Armistice of Mudanya.
• According to some historians, it was the Greek occupation of Smyrna that created the Turkish National movement. Arnold J. Toynbee argues: "The war between Turkey and Greece which burst out at this time was a defensive war for safeguarding of the Turkish homelands in Anatolia. It was a result of the Allied policy of imperialism operating in a foreign state, the military resources and powers of which were seriously under-estimated; it was provoked by the unwarranted invasion of a Greek army of occupation." According to others, the landing of the Greek troops in Smyrna was part of Eleftherios Venizelos's plan, inspired by the Megali Idea, to liberate the large Greek populations in the Asia Minor. Prior to the Great Fire of Smyrna, Smyrna had a bigger Greek population than the Greek capital, Athens. Athens, before the Population exchange, had a population of 473,000, while Smyrna, according to Ottoman sources, in 1910, had a Greek population exceeding 629,000.

Overcrowded boats with refugees fleeing the Great fire of Smyrna. The photo was taken from the launch boat of a US warship.

The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) ended all conflict and replaced previous treaties to constitute modern Turkey.

• it also provided for a Population exchange between Greece and Turkey that had begun before the final signature of the treaty in July 1923. About one and a half million Greeks had to leave Turkey for Greece and about half a million Turks had to leave Greece for Turkey (note that the population exchange was on religious grounds, thus the exchange was officially that of Christians for Muslims). The exceptions to the population exchange were Istanbul (Constantinople) and the islands of Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos), where the Greek minority (including the Ecumenical Patriarch) was allowed to stay, and Western Thrace, whose Muslim minority was also allowed to stay.
• The Treaty awarded the islands of Imbros and Tenedos to Turkey, with special provisions for the Greeks living there. These rights were revoked or violated by the 26 June 1927 legislation of "Civil Law"

There were atrocities and ethnic cleansing by both sides during this period. The war with Greece and the revolutionary Turks saw both sides commit atrocities. The Greek genocide was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia which started before the World War I, continued during the war and its aftermath (1914–1922). It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire.

Initial relations between Greece and Turkey: 1923–1945

File:AtaturkAndVenizelos.jpg

The first president of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (center) hosting Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos (at left) in Ankara October 27, 1930

The post-war leaders of Turkey and Greece were determined to establish normal relations between the two states and a treaty was concluded. Following the population exchange, Greece no longer wished hostility but negotiations stalled because of the issue of valuations of the properties of the exchanged populations. Driven by Eleftherios Venizelos in co-operation with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as well as İsmet İnönü's government, a series of treaties were signed between Greece and Turkey in 1930 which, in effect, restored Greek-Turkish relations and established a de facto alliance between the two countries. As part of these treaties, Greece and Turkey agreed that the Treaty of Lausanne would be the final settlement of their respective borders, while they also pledged that they would not join opposing military or economic alliances and to stop immediately their naval arms race.

The Balkan Pact of 1934 was signed, in which Greece and Turkey joined Yugoslavia and Romania in a treaty of mutual assistance and settled outstanding issues (Bulgaria refused to join). Embassies were constructed as a result. Both leaders recognised the need for peace as it resulted in more friendly relations. Venizelos nominated Atatürk for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934.

Greece was a signatory to a 1936 agreement that gives Turkey control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits and regulates the transit of naval warships. The nations signed the 1938 Salonika Agreement which abandoned the demilitarised zones along the Turkish border with Greece, a result of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Turkey otherwise followed a course of relative international isolation during the period of Atatürk's Reforms in the 1920s and 1930s. Greece would also be distracted by internal matters when it brought back republican rule with the Second Hellenic Republic from 1924 to 1935 and then fell into military dictatorship between 1936 until 1941. Turkey remained neutral during the Second World War while Greece fell under Axis occupation from 1941 until 1945.

In 1941, due to Turkey's neutrality during the war, Britain lifted the blockade and allowed shipments of grain to come from the Turkey to relieve the great famine in Athens during the Axis occupation. Using the vessel SS Kurtuluş, foodstuffs were collected by a nationwide campaign of Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent) with the operation funded by the American Greek War Relief Association and the Hellenic Union of Constantinopolitans.

Despite the stabilisation of relations between the nations in this period, the Greek minority that remained in Turkey faced discriminatory targeting.

• The first occasion and in anticipation of WWII in 1941, there was the incident of the Twenty Classes which was the conscription of non-Muslims males who were sent in labour battalions.
• The second, and more destructively in 1942, Turkey imposed the Varlık Vergisi, a special tax, which heavily impacted the non-Muslim minorities of Turkey. Officially, the tax was devised to fill the state treasury that would have been needed had Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union invaded the country. However, the main reason for the tax was to nationalize the Turkish economy by reducing minority populations' influence and control over the country's trade, finance, and industries.

File:Atatürk, Stojadinović, Metaxas, Comnen. Ankara, March 1938 (Koncern Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny).png

Kemal Atatürk with Ioannis Metaxas in Ankara, March 1938

Post World War II relations: 1945–1982

Main articles: Cyprus conflict and Greeks in Turkey § Republic_of_Turkey

Further information: Istanbul pogrom, Cypriot intercommunal violence, and Expulsion of Istanbul Greeks

The early Cold War aligned the international policies of the two countries with the Western Bloc. Following the power vacuum left by the Axis occupation at the end of the war, a Greek Civil War erupted that was one of the first conflicts of the Cold War. It represented the first example of Cold War postwar involvement on the part of the Allies in the internal affairs of a foreign country. Turkey was a focus for the Soviet Union due to foreign control of the straights; it would be a central reason for the outbreak of the Cold War In 1950 both fought alongside each other at the Korean War; in 1952, both countries joined NATO; and in 1953 Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia formed a new Balkan Pact for mutual defence against the Soviet Union.

Despite this, the think-tank Geopolitical Futures claims three events contributed to the deterioration of bilateral relations after World War II

1. The Dodecanese archipelago. By virtue of Italy being defeated in the second world war, the long-standing issue since the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement between Greece and Italy was resolved to Greece's favour in 1946 to Turkey's chagrin as it changed the balance of power. Although Turkey renounced claims to the Dodecanese in the Treaty of Lausanne, future administrations wanted them for security reasons, and possibly due to the Cyprus issue.
2. The decolonization of Cyprus. Conflict broke out between the Greeks and Turks on the island instead of the needed state building process. In the 1950s, the pursuit of enosis became a part of Greece's national policy. Taksim became the slogan by some of the Turkish Cypriots in reaction to enosis. Tensions would increase between Greece and Turkey, and the Cyprus dispute weakened the Greek government of George Papandreou and triggered, in April 1967, a military coup. The junta staged a coup against the Cypriot President and Archbishop Makarios. Soon after, Turkey—using its guarantor status arising from the trilateral accords of the 1959–1960 Zürich and London Agreement—invaded Cyprus and remains to this day on the island.
3. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Starting from 1958 and expanded in 1982 for the issue of territorial waters—UNCLOS replaced the older 'freedom of the seas' concept, dating from the 17th century. According to this concept, national rights were limited to a specified belt of water extending from a nation's coast lines, usually 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) (three-mile limit). By 1967, only 30 nations still used the old three nautical mile convention. It was ratified by Greece in 1972 but Turkey has not ratified it, asking for a bilateral solution since 1974 which uses the mid-line of the Aegean instead

Northern Cyprus in 2009

In 1955, the Adnan Menderes government is believed to have orchestrated the Istanbul pogrom, which targeted the city's substantial Greek ethnic minority. In September 1955 a bomb exploded close to the Turkish consulate in Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki, also damaging the Atatürk Museum, site of Atatürk's birthplace. The damage to the house was minimal, with some broken windows. In retaliation, in Istanbul thousands of shops, houses, churches and even graves belonging to members of the ethnic Greek minority were destroyed within a few hours, over a dozen people were killed and many more injured. The ongoing struggle between Turkey and Greece over control of Cyprus, and Cypriot intercommunal violence, formed part of the backdrop to the pogrom. Deflecting domestic attention to Cyprus was politically convenient for the Turkish Menderes government, which was suffering from an ailing economy. Although a minority, the Greek population played a prominent role in the city's business life, making it a convenient scapegoat during the economic crisis in the mid-1950s.

In 1964 Turkish prime minister İsmet İnönü renounced the Greco-Turkish Treaty of Friendship of 1930 and took actions against the Greek minority. An estimated 50,000 Greeks were expelled. A 1971 Turkish law nationalized religious high schools and closed the Halki seminary on Istanbul's Heybeli Island which had trained Greek Orthodox clergy since 1844 and remains to this day an issue in diplomatic relations.

Contemporary history and issues

Greece and Turkey since their formation have used real and imagined trauma of each other to justify their nationalism. Yet, Greek-Turkish feuding was not a significant factor in international relations from 1930 to 1955 and during the cold war decades, domestic and bipolarity politics limited their competitiveness. However by the mid 1990s and decades to follow, the restraint on their rivalry was removed and both nations had become each others biggest security risk.

There are several issues that dominate current relations, which include territory disputes, minority rights, and Turkey's relationship with the EU and its members.

In recent decades, relations have become entangled with other nations. However, it’s still about who has control over the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. Since the 1990s, the countries have pursued a strategy of encircling each other, which has made their conflict expand to other countries—and pulled in the EU. While Cyprus and rights over the Aegean remain unresolved, the discovery of hydrocarbons reframes their disputes. And importance.

In 1986 by the border at the Evros River, a Greek soldier was shot after an offer to trade cigarettes. His death sparked outrage. In 1987, a Turkish survey ship, the Simsik, was ordered to be sunk to the bottom of the Greek waters if it floated too close. It nearly did. In 1995 the uninhabited rock island Imia, where both countries claim jurisdiction, had them close to starting a war.

The problem has grown. Lesser incidents often occur – where both sides exchange fire – which does not help when tensions fly high. Despite this, there has been some progress.

Positive relations

In 1995, relations began to change with the Greek election of Kostas Simitis who redefined priorities but it wasn't until the meeting of the foreign ministers the following years that this was noticed. In 1998, the capture of the Kurdish separatist Abdullah Ocalan – on the way from the Greek embassy in Kenya – and the related fallout led to the Greek foreign minister resigning, whose replacement was with a cheer squad member for discussions with Turkey. In 1999, violent earthquakes hit both countries and saw an outpouring of goodwill.

In the years that followed, relations improved. They included agreements on fighting organised crime, reducing military spending, preventing illegal immigration, and clearing land mines on the border. More significantly, Greece lifted its opposition to Turkey’s accession to the EU, bringing some Turkish delight. However, even though there was a change to the weather, it did not change the atmosphere on the issues that mattered.

Disaster diplomacy

Main article: Greek–Turkish earthquake diplomacy

Relations between Greece and Turkey is well documented to have improved after successive earthquakes hit both countries in the summer of 1999.

A sign of improved relations was visible in the response to a mid-air collision by Greek and Turkish fighter jets in the southern Aegean in May 2006. While the Turkish pilot ejected safely, the Greek pilot lost his life. However, both countries agreed that the event should not affect their bilateral relations and made a strong effort to maintain them by agreeing to a set of confidence-building measures in the aftermath of the accident.

In August 2021, Turkish president thanked several countries and organisations, including Greece, for support during the 2021 Turkish wildfires. Later, during the 2021 Greece wildfires, Turkey sent two firefighting aircraft to assist.

The Aegean conflict

The UN sea treaty UNCLOS evolved in 1982 and came into force in 1994. Turkey is not a signatory. The conflict is whether the Greek islands are allowed a continental shelf, the basis of claiming rights over the sea. Turkey disputes that Greece can claim 12 miles off the coast of their islands, which the sea treaty permits, implying only the mainland has this right. There’s a good reason why this definition matters. It would restrict Turkey and give Greece dominant control of the Aegean. The EU requires the sea treaty’s membership as a pre-condition. Turkey on the other hand, has made a continental claim to split the Aegean Sea in the middle.

There are several issues at stake based on how this continental shelf is defined. One is protecting Turkey’s shipping lanes as the Dardanelles feed into the Aegean (despite international law protecting this). A second is on the rights to mineral wealth (which has yet to be found). A third is on the 1950s flight zone, which impacts the military (a non-issue that was challenged two decades later, after the Cyprus invasion, to match the continental shelf claim by Turkey). Ultimately, fear of sovereignty loss is what’s driving this conflict. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Greek reaction with the 1974 militarisation of the Greek islands near Turkey, and the Turkish creation of the 1975 Izmir army base (as large as the entire Greek army itself with amphibious capabilities) has created permanent military tensions.

In recent years, the Blue Homeland policy of Turkey positions it in the Mediterranean as a sea power. Greece’s fear, often explicitly communicated by Turkey’s politicians in the media, is that Turkey wants to renegotiate borders otherwise determined by international law.

Issues

Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal in Davos, February 1986

Main article: Aegean dispute

Issues unresolved to this day concern the mutual delimitation of several zones of control:

• The width of the territorial waters. Both sides currently possess 6 nautical miles (11 km) off their shores in the Aegean Sea. Greece claims a right to unilateral expansion to 12 nautical miles, based on the International Law of the Sea. Turkey, which already has expanded its own territorial waters to 12 miles on its other coasts, denies the applicability of the 12-miles rule in the Aegean and has threatened Greece with war in the case it should try to apply it unilaterally.
• The width of the national airspace. Greece currently claims 10 miles, while Turkey only acknowledges 6 miles.
• The future delimitation of the continental shelf zone in the international parts of the Aegean, which would give the states exclusive rights to economic exploitation.
• The right of Greece to exercise flight control over Turkish military flight activities within the international parts of the Aegean, based on conflicting interpretations of the rules about Flight Information Regions (FIR) set by the ICAO.
• Since 1996, the sovereignty over some small uninhabited islets, most notably Imia/Kardak.

The conflict over military flight activities has led to a practice of continuous tactical military provocations. Turkish aircraft regularly fly in the zones over which Greece claims control (i.e., the outer four miles of the claimed Greek airspace and the international parts of Athens FIR), while Greek aircraft constantly intercept them. Aircraft from both countries frequently engage in mock dogfights. These operations often cause casualties and losses for both the Greek and Turkish Air Forces.

For five years until 2021, the nations suspended talks due to the tensions over these issues.

Incidents

• On 18 June 1992, a Greek Mirage F1CG crashed near the island of Agios Efstratios in the Northern Aegean, during a low-altitude dogfight with two Turkish F-16s. Greek pilot Nikolaos Sialmas was killed in the crash.
• Οn 8 February 1995, a Turkish F-16C crashed on the sea after being intercepted by a Greek Mirage F1CG. The Turkish pilot Mustafa Yildirim bailed out and was rescued by a Greek helicopter. After brief hospitalization in Rhodes, the pilot was handed over to the Turkish side.
• On 27 December 1995, a pair of Greek F-16Cs intercept a pair of Turkish F-4E. During the dogfight that followed, one of the Turkish aircraft went into a steep dive and crashed into the sea, killing its pilot Altug Karaburun. The co-pilot Ogur Kilar managed to bail out safely and was rescued by a Greek ΑΒ-205 helicopter. He was returned to Turkey after receiving first aid treatment in Lesbos.
• On 8 October 1996, a pair of Greek Mirage 2000s intercepted a pair of Turkish F-16s (a single-seater C and a two-seater D) over the Aegean island of Chios. The F-16s were escorting 4 Turkish F-4Es on a simulated SEAD mission. After a long dogfight, one of the Turkish F-16s was allegedly shot down with a Magic II missile fired by a Greek Mirage 2000 piloted by Thanos Grivas. The Greek authorities said that the jet went down due to mechanical failure, while the Turkish Defense Ministry said, on 2014, that the jet had been shot down by the Greek pilot. Some Greek media outlets reported that it was an accident and the Turkish plane had unintentionally been shot down. Turkish pilot Nail Erdoğan was killed whereas back seater pilot Osman Cicekli bailed out. He was rescued by a Greek helicopter and handed over to the Turkish side. Greece officially offered to assist Turkey in its efforts to locate and salvage the Turkish fighter jet. On 2016, Turkish prosecutors have demanded two aggravated life sentences for the Greek pilot who allegedly downed the Turkish F-16 jet. The indictment demanded that Greek Mirage 2000 pilot Thanos Grivas be sentenced to two aggravated life sentences on charges of “voluntary manslaughter” and “actions for weakening the independence of the state.” It also demanded another 12 years for “vandalizing the jet.” Greece rejected the demands of the Turkish prosecutors.
• On 23 May 2006, a Greek F-16 and a Turkish F-16 collided approximately 35 nautical miles south off the island of Rhodes, near the island of Karpathos during a Turkish reconnaissance flight involving two F-16Cs and a RF-4. Greek pilot Kostas Iliakis was killed, whereas the Turkish pilot Halil İbrahim Özdemir bailed out and was rescued by a cargo ship.
• On 16 February 2016, Turkey prevented the Greek PM's aircraft carrying the Greek PM and Greece's delegation from landing on the island of Rhodes for refueling during their trip to Iran, arguing that the island is a demilitarized zone. Turkey also refused to accept the flight plan submitted by the Greeks, mentioned that the plane will not be allowed to enter Turkish airspace. Greeks created a new flight plan, the plane flew over Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan and Saudi Arabia so as to reach Iran, according to the new plan.
• On 12 February 2018, near midnight, the 1700 ton SG-703 Umut of the Turkish Coast Guard rammed into the 460 ton Stan Patrol OPV-090 Gavdos of the Hellenic Coast Guard. No injuries were reported but Gavdos received considerable damage on her port stern side. The incident took place in Greek territorial waters east of Imia.
• On 12 April 2018, a Greek Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet crashed into the Aegean Sea, killing the pilot Capt. Giorgos Baltadoros, 33, as he returned from a mission to intercept Turkish aircraft that had violated Greek air space. The Hellenic Air Force lost contact with the Mirage jet at 12.15, while the aircraft was about 10 miles northeast of Skyros.
• On 17 April 2018, two Turkish fighter aircraft harassed the helicopter carrying Greek Prime Minister and the Greek Armed Forces Chief, as they were flying from the islet of Ro to Rhodes. The Turkish jets contacted the pilot of the Greek helicopter and asked for flight details. The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) responded by sending its own jets, which caused the Turkish fighters to leave.
• On 25 March 2019, the Greek Prime Minister accused Turkey of harassing his helicopter while he was traveling to Agathonisi for the Greek independence day celebration. Turkey rejected the accusations, saying that the fighter jets were carrying out a routine mission.
• On 18 April 2019, Anadolu Agency wrote that after some foreign media claimed that Turkish fighter jets harassed the helicopter which was carrying the Greek army general during its travel to Kastelorizo, the Turkish army dismissed the claims saying that there was no approach that posed a danger to the Greek helicopter, adding that the aircraft belonging to the Turkish Air Forces were on regular duty in the Aegean.
• In March 2020, Greece summoned Turkey's ambassador to lodge a complaint after the Greek coastguard said one of its vessels had been rammed deliberately by a Turkish coastguard boat.
• On 3 May 2020, Greek officials said that two Turkish fighters harassed the helicopter which was transferring the Greek Defense Minister and the Greek Chief of the National Defense General Staff, after the helicopter took off from the island of Oinousses. In response 2 Mirage 2000s were sent to intercept the Turkish F-16s which was caught on video and released by the Hellenic air force. The Greek Ministry of Defense provided photos of the incident showing the Turkish aircraft.

Cyprus and the EU

Main articles: Cyprus problem, Accession of Turkey to the European Union, Turkey–European_Union_relations, and Operation Irini

The EU, of which Greece has been a member since 1981, interplay with the relations of Greece and Turkey in three different ways:

1. Turkey's accession. Turkey has been a candidate for membership for several decades. For example, in the 1980s after Greece was admitted in the EU, Greece concentrated its diplomatic efforts on barring Turkey’s admission to the EU. Concerns about Turkey like its human rights record and Greece’s veto ultimately had Turkey side-lined by the EU. Domestically, this contributed to the shift away from Turkey’s founding secular doctrine Kemalism and the rise of political Islam. The change was popular in inland Turkey because it adjusted the government’s amnesia of the Ottoman Empire’s past. It also evolved to an alternate identity of European orientation, as a regional center in the emerging Eurasian political formation.
2. The historical issue of Cyprus. The 1990s saw EU accession friction of Cyprus which was parallel to military tension. In 1994, Greece and Cyprus agreed on a security doctrine that would mean any Turkish attempt on Cyprus would cause war for Greece. In 1997 Cyprus purchased two Soviet-era missile systems, the S-300s, letting out a Turkish roar; Greece did a swap and installed them on Crete against heavy whimpering. Negotiations never settled the division on the island in the 1990s because of the non-negotiable by the Turkish side to recognise North Cyprus as an independent state. When Cyprus joined the EU in 2002, the negotiation took a different flare. With Greece and Cyprus as EU members, this has become an EU issue; but with the island only 60 miles from Turkey, it also remains a national security issue for Turkey.
3. EU policy. Turkey's migrant crisis has also had a big impact on its relationship with the EU. The enforcement of the arms embargo against Libya brought other EU members into conflict with Turkey on Operation Irini. The gas drilling on disputed territory with Greece with the RV MTA Oruç Reis led to EU sanctions

Energy pipelines

The countries have pursued a strategy of encircling each other. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, both Greece and Turkey viewed each other with suspicion as they developed relations with the new countries. It wasn’t until 1995, however, that this fear materialised. Greece formed a defense cooperation agreement with Syria and between 1995–1998 established good relations with Turkey’s other neighbors, Iran and Armenia. In reaction, Turkey spoke with Israel in 1996, which caused outroar by the Arab countries.

The 2010 discovery of gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean first by Israel and then Egypt, has created new energy to fan the disputes. The historical security issues of the Aegean and Cyprus are now a focal point to resolving Europe’s energy needs. For example, the 2016 Turkey-Israel reconciliation led to Greece torpedoing the 2017 Cyprus UN talks due to their relationship’s risk for developing a gas pipeline. In 2019, the east Mediterranean gas forum was created, including seven countries but excluding Turkey. Turkey would work from 2018 with Libya to extend its economic rights over the sea, which has led to recent tensions with other members of the EU. This instability over the status of the Aegean and Cyprus prevents the needed investment from developing pipelines to Europe.

The region is considered the end-point for east-west pipelines. In 2007, the countries inaugurated the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline giving Caspian gas its first direct Western outlet. The Caspian Sea is one of the oldest oil-producing regions: it's estimated to have 48 billion barrels of oil in proven and probable reserves. That’s comparable to one year and a bit of global oil consumption. Its estimated 292 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is enough to satisfy two years of global gas consumption. The opening up of these fields is recent after more than 20 years of negotiation following the 2018 A Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

Minority rights

Main articles: Greeks in Turkey and Turks in Greece

Since the formation of Turkey, minority rights have been an issue. The treaty of Lausanne provided for the protection of the Greek Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey and the Muslim minority in Greece.

Minorities in both countries since have been affected by the state of relations of the nations. They are used as a point of leverage, using the principle of reciprocity. For example, Turkey would put pressure on the Greek minority in Turkey when the Cyprus issue escalated in the 1960s. Turkey put the election of Muftis by the Muslim Turkish minority in Greece as a precondition for opening the Halki Seminary which was closed in 1971. Greece in 1972 as a reaction, closed the Turkish school in Rhodes. Turkey in recent years has used its cultural heritage, such as the Sumela Monastery, in order to achieve specific political ends.

Both nations have done their share of unjust actions over the years. Some examples include:

• During world war two, the nationalisation of industry with the Varlık Vergisi that targeted minorities and especially Greeks
• The scapegoating of Greeks due to Turkey's economic problems that resulted in the Istanbul pogrom
• The Greek junta deporting Turkish citizens on the Dodecanese in 1967
• Article 19 of the Nationality Code established in 1955 two classes of Greek citizenship, whereby "non-Greek descent" lost their citizenship if they left the country. By the time of its abolition in 1998, 60,000 people has lost their citizenship and the abolition had no retroactive effect.

In recent years, the main issues are the election of Muftis (currently controlled by Greek authorities) and the reopening of the Halki Seminary. Greece’s hesitance could be solved if the Mufti’s were stripped of authority of jurisdiction. Turkey’s precondition to open the Halki Seminary is considered unnecessary: it's purely a political decision though the Greek government had promised Erdoğan that two Mosques would be built in Athens.

In both cases, and in the words of former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, the respective nations would benefit if they treated the minorities as citizens not foreigners.

Migrants

Main article: Turkey's migrant crisis

Turkey has become a transit country for people entering Europe. In 2015, the route that passes from Turkey to Greece and then through the Balkan countries became the most used route for migrants escaping conflicts and war in the Middle East and North Africa, while irregular migration from further East continues. Turkey assumed the role of guardian of the Schengen area, protecting it from irregular migration. This, combined with the migrant crisis – has resulted in it being a key issue between Turkey and the EU. People moving across the border of both nations are a common sight and frequent cause of incidents.

In 2016, there was a EU-Turkey deal on migrant crisis. Despite some success with the four year agreement extended to 2022, there have been several incidents and in 2019 the Greek government warned that a new migrant crisis similar to the previous one will repeat, though this has yet to happen.

Turkish insurgents and asylum seekers

During the 2010 trial for an alleged plot to stage a military coup dating back to 2003, named Sledgehammer, the conspirators were accused of planning attacks on mosques, triggering a conflict with Greece by shooting down one of Turkey's own warplanes and then accusing Greeks of this and planting bombs in Istanbul to pave the way for a military takeover.

Greece over the years has arrested on many occasions members of the DHKP-C who planned attacks in Turkey. Turkey has accused Greece of supporting terrorists such as the DHKP-C.

Turkey has seen a slide to authoritarianism resulting in Turkish refugees becoming more common, like politician Leyla Birlik accused of insulting the president. This is especially since the failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, where 995 people applied for asylum (including military personnel which caused tensions) immediately after and have kept the newsrooms busyMore than 1,800 Turkish citizens requested asylum in Greece in 2017, making it a Greek drama as it included those who plotted the assassination Sometimes, this causes tensions between the nations in other areas.

Sports relations

See also: Greece–Turkey football rivalry

• The Greece–Turkey football rivalry is one of Europe's major rivalries between two national teams.
• Çağla Büyükakçay-Maria Sakkari tennis duo of Turkey and Greece respectively won the ITF Circuit finals in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 14 November 2015 by beating İpek Soylu and Elise Mertens.
• In 2002, Turkey and Greece made an unsuccessful attempt to jointly host the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship. The bid was one of the four candidacies that was recommended to the UEFA Executive Committee, the joint Austria/Switzerland bid winning the right to host the tournament.

Timeline

Year	Date	Event
1923	30 January	Turkey and Greece sign the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations agreement
	24 July	Treaty of Lausanne is signed. It would come into force 6 August 1924.
1926	26 June	Mahalli Idareler Kanunu (the local government act; no. 1151/1927), concerning the local administration of Imbros and Tenedos was published which stripped the islands of their local governance. This was seen as revoking article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne; it's argued the provisions were simply never observed in the first place.
1933	14 September	Greece and Turkey sign Pact of Cordial Friendship.
1934	9 February	Greece and Turkey, as well as Romania and Yugoslavia sign the Balkan Pact, a mutual defense treaty.
1938	27 April	Greece and Turkey sign the "Additional Treaty to the Treaty of Friendship, Neutrality, Conciliation and Arbitration of October 30th, 1930, and to the Pact of Cordial Friendship of September 14th, 1933.
1941	6 October	SS Kurtuluş starts carrying first Turkish aid to Greece to alleviate the Great Famine during the Axis occupation of Greece.
1942	11 November	Turkey enacts Varlık Vergisi. Industry was nationalised and targeted the Greek minority
1947	10 February	Despite Turkish objections, the victorious powers of World War II transfer the Dodecanese islands to Greece, through the Treaty of Peace with Italy.
	31 March	Handover ceremony of the Dodecanese to Greece by the British authorities
1950		Greece and Turkey both fight at the Korean War at the side of the UN forces.
1952	18 February	Greece and Turkey both join NATO.
1955	6–7 September	Istanbul pogrom against the Greek population of Istanbul.
1971		The Halki Seminary, the only school where the Greek minority in Turkey used to educate its clergymen, is closed by Turkish authorities.
1974	15 July	Greek Junta sponsored coup overthrows Makarios in Cyprus.
	20 July – 18 August	Turkish invasion of Cyprus
1987	27 March	1987 Aegean crisis brought both countries very close to war.
	30 March	End of 1987 Aegean crisis.
1994	7 March	Greek Government declares May 19 as a day of remembrance of the (1914–1923) Genocide of Pontic Greeks.
1995	26 December	Imia (in Greek) / Kardak (in Turkish) crisis brought the two countries to the brink of war.
1996	31 January	End of Imia/Kardak crisis.
1997	5 January	Cyprus announces purchase of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, starting Cyprus Missile Crisis.
1998	December	The missiles are instead positioned in Greece, ending the Cyprus Missile Crisis.
1999		Relations between Greek officials and Abdullah Öcalan (Kurdish rebel leader) and the role of Greek Embassy in Nairobi International Airport Kenya when he captured in an operation by MİT (National Intelligence Organization) caused crisis in relations between two countries for a period of time.
2001	21 September	Greek Government declares September 14 as a "day of remembrance of the Genocide of the Hellenes of Asia Minor by the Turkish state".
2004		Turkey reconfirmed a "casus belli" if Greece expands its territorial waters to 12 nm as the recent international treaty on the Law of the Sea and the international law allow. Turkey expanded its territorial waters to 12 nm only in the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece hasn't yet expanded its territorial waters in the Aegean, an act which according to some would exacerbate the Greco-Turkish problems in the Aegean (such as the continental shelf and airspace disputes).
2005	12 April	Greece and Turkey have agreed to establish direct communications between the headquarters of the Air Forces of the two countries in an effort to defuse tension over mutual allegations of air space violations over the Aegean.

See also

• History of Greece
• History of Turkey
• History of Cyprus
• Hellenoturkism
• Foreign relations of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Northern Cyprus
• European Union–Turkey relations
• Greece–Turkey border
• Intermediate Region
• Greeks in Turkey
• Greeks in Middle East
• Turks in Greece
• Turks in Europe

Further reading

• Turkish-Greek Relations: Escaping from the Security Dilemma in the Aegean. Routledge. 2004. ISBN 978-0-203-50191-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
• Bahcheli, Tozun (1987). Greek-Turkish Relations Since 1955. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-7235-6.
• Brewer, David (2003). The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from the Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation. Overlook Press. ISBN 978-1-84511-504-3.
• Greek-Turkish Relations: In the Era of Globalization. Brassey's Inc. 2001. ISBN 1-57488-312-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
• Ker-Lindsay, James (2007). Crisis and Conciliation: A Year of Rapprochement between Greece and Turkey. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-504-3.
• Kinross, Patrick (2003). Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation. Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-599-0.
• Smith, Michael L. (1999). Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919–1922. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08569-7.

External links

• Turkish PM on landmark Greek trip
• Greece-Turkey boundary study by Florida State University, College of Law
• Greece's Shifting Position on Turkish Accession to the EU Before and After Helsinki (1999)
• Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relations with Greece
• Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relations with Turkey