Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first Turkish president to visit Greece in 65 years Thursday Dec 07,2017

Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first Turkish president to visit Greece in 65 years when he arrived on Thursday Dec 07,2017 and met with the Greek prime minister and president.

He immediately affronted his hosts by raising the prospect of changes to the treaty that defines their borders. On Friday, he repeated the same comments in Thrace, in northeastern Greece, home to the country’s Muslim minority, which Turkey has long referred to as a Turkish minority.

In a conciliatory gesture to his Greek hosts, Mr. Erdogan acknowledged for the first time the tiny Pomak minority as a Muslim community separate from those of Turkish origin.

“You have been fighting for survival, and I congratulate you for this,” Mr. Erdogan said in an impromptu speech, adding that the region was “a bridge between two neighbors.”

The last president of Turkey to visit Greece, Celal Bayar in 1952, promoted the stabilization of borders. Mr. Erdogan had twice visited Greece as a prime minister, but this was his first visit as a newly empowered president, and it came at a time of increasing diplomatic isolation for Turkey

In the 65 years since Turkey’s last president visited Greece, tensions have peaked several times.

In September 1955, Turkish nationalists targeted the Greek minority in Istanbul, after news of a dynamite explosion near the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, a city in northern Greece.

Relations between Greece and Turkey dramatically deteriorated after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974  which came a few days after a Greek-Cypriot guerrilla group had overthrown Archbishop Makarios, the island’s longtime leader. Turkish officials had feared a Cypriot union with Greece, whose military government at the time had backed the coup.About 160000 Greek Cypriots were displaced  in the crisis.

In late January 1996, both Turkey and Greece claimed sovereignity of a pair of uninhabited islands known as Imia in Greece and as Kardak in Turkey. Greek and Turkish ships surrounded the islands, a confrontation that calmed only after NATO intervened.

An earthquake that devastated Turkey in the late summer of 1999  prompted a rapprochement between the two countries.

“Big earthquakes took place in both countries at the same time, humanitarian help was offered and the respective societies worked together,” Mr. Hakura said. Turkish and Greek foreign ministers saw an opportunity for reconciliation, the so-called “earthquake diplomacy.”

In the aftermath, there was a dramatic improvement in relations

With Greece and Turkey still at odds on many important issues, “it’s a breath of fresh air in Greek-Turkish ties that they’re currently reaching out to each other,” said Mr. Cagaptay.

These issues include migration, the Cyprus dispute, Turkey’s stalled accession process for European Union membership — Greece supports moving the process on — and the airspace and Aegean disputes that have been plaguing their relationship for years.

“The two countries could do so much if they worked closer together. There is untapped financial potential,” Mr. Cagaptay suggested.

Any progress is fragile, given the longstanding animosity between the two countries. That was amply demonstrated when Mr. Erdogan raised the prospect of an “update” of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which defined Turkey’s borders with its neighbors.