Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (online, 26.09.11) with the above title reported, inter alia, the following:
“Papandreou plans to visit Turkey to upgrade bilateral ties in all fields including tensions over the gas drilling issue, while Turkey started its seismic research on Monday.
Despite regional tensions over a Greek Cypriot gas drilling operation in the Mediterranean, the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Greece have expressed commitments to push ahead with bilateral cooperation talks planned for the coming weeks.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, accompanied by a number of cabinet ministers, is set to visit Ankara to upgrade bilateral ties in all fields late October or early November. Greece’s Papandreou called Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday and the two had ‘a very cordial conversation, free of tensions’, an official from Erdogan’s office told the Hurriyet Daily News. The two Premiers planned to meet in New York last week, but Papandreou had to call off his visit due to the growing economic crisis at home. The Erdogan-Papandreou conversation came on the day Turkey’s Piri Reis, an exploration vessel, began its seismic work in the Mediterranean. Papandreou said ‘the situation should be handled with restraint’, while Erdogan explained Ankara’s views on the dispute and its concerns that the Greek Cypriot drilling drive would ‘sabotage’ U.N.-sponsored peace talks between the two Cypriot communities at a time when these have reached a critical stage.
Erdogan said that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu’s proposal on ending the crisis should be seriously considered. He also recalled the principle of using natural reserves of Cyprus following the reunification of the divided island. Both leaders indicated that the row should not impede the second meeting of the Turkey-Greece High-Level Cooperation Council, planned to be held either in October or November in Turkey, the official said. Huseyin Avni Benli, director of the institute that owns Piri Reis, said that seismic research has started. Benli said Turkish war jets and ships were closely watching their work
