Greece and Turkey stand at a “window of opportunity” to strengthen relations, with the willingness of both nations’ leaders proving pivotal in progress on this front, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis has said.
The “rule of law does not function in Albania,” the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of the Albanian city of Himare Fredi Beleri has said. Beleri was detained in May on suspicion of voter fraud. All his appeals to be released in order to be sworn in as mayor have been turned down by the Albanian courts.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled Tuesday’s meeting with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after his office said the two sides had previously agreed that it should not be used as a public platform “to relitigate long, long settled matters,” a reference to ownership of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Greek officials said Tuesday that they will continue talks with the British Museum about bringing the Parthenon Marbles back to Athens, despite UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceling a meeting with his Greek counterpart where the contested antiquities were due to be discussed.
Athens mayor-elect Haris Doukas visited the municipal authority’s Department of Sanitation on Monday, where he vowed a cleaner, greener city.
Greece will next month repay ahead of schedule 5.3 billion euros ($5.8 billion) of loans owed to eurozone countries under its first bailout, and hopes to repeat the move in 2024, Finance Ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
The US is reportedly discussing with Greece the sale of a total of 75,000 artillery shells from the Hellenic Armed Forces’ stockpile as part of the effort to replenish Ukrainian ammunition in the war against Russia.
Strong winds are hampering the ongoing search for 12 seamen who have been missing since the freighter they were sailing on went down near the northeastern Aegean island of Lesvos on Sunday.
The islands of the Ionian and western parts of mainland Greece and the Peloponnese should brace for strong showers and gale-force winds on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to weather forecasts.
UN peacekeepers on the ethnically divided island of Cyprus are reportedly keeping a close eye on recent Turkish Cypriot activity in the buffer zone between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-occupied north.