Ties with Erdoğan are based on respect and frankness, says Greek PM

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday lauded Turkey’s hosting of 4 million refugees and said the EU should do all it can to support Ankara.

“This should be acknowledged by the international community and the EU should do whatever it can to support our neighbor,” said Tsipras, who will make a two-day visit to Turkey on Monday.

A Turkey-EU refugee deal reached in March 2016 aims to discourage irregular migration to Europe through the Aegean Sea.

Turkey hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.

He added that Greece and Turkey should increase cooperation on refugee flow.

“My relationship with President Erdoğan is based on respect, cordiality and frankness,” Tsipras said.

"During my visit I believe we will have the chance to continue the difficult, but frank dialogue we started in December 2017 and to pick up our positive agenda from where we left it," he added, recalling the Turkish president's visit to Athens, which was the first at the presidential level after 65 years.

The Greek prime minister is scheduled to meet the leader of Istanbul's Fener Greek Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew after his visit to Ankara.

Tsipras also talked on the developments regarding the Muslim Turkish minority's religious freedom in Greece, an issue which was raised by Erdogan in his 2017 Athens visit.

"The Treaty of Lausanne is the applicable international convention regarding minorities, so we inform each other on relevant developments on this basis," Tsipras said, branding the issue as an internal one rather than bilateral.

"We have made important steps until now on the implementation of Sharia law, the structure and function of the Mufti offices and educational issues. We will continue in this direction," the Greek leader said.

The election of religious leaders or muftis has been a key problem of Greece’s Muslim Turkish minority of some 150,000 -- concentrated in the Western Thrace region -- since 1991.

The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne also guarantees the religious freedom of the Muslim minority in Greece. However, Greece annulled the Greek Act in 1991 and started appointing the muftis itself.