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Greeks, Turks start to patch up feuds

ATHENS: Though they may not yet be bosom pals, Greece and Turkey have at least made a start at the delicate process of patching up their age old feuds.

Only recently their jets regularly engaged in dog fights over the Aegean, war nearly erupted over a pair of uninhabited rocks jutting out of the Aegean and Greece gave refuge to a man Turkey holds responsible for the deaths of 30,000 people.

But a trip to Greece by Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem last week -- the first such official visit in 40 years -- was meant to show those days are over.

He and his Greek opposite number George Papandreou have signed nine non-contentious agreements in the last two weeks. More important than their content, the deals show the old foes can now work together and do share at least some common ground.

"This approach does not change the problems," Papandreou told a meeting of journalists from both sides. "But it offers a new way toward their solution."

The new strategy has been to skirt round the really sticky questions, such as Cyprus and disputes over territorial rights in the Aegean, where there has been no departure from their well-entrenched positions.

Many observers reckoned Papandreou had broken with that strategy when he bluntly brought up the Cyprus problem minutes after Cem arrived in Athens.

"The (Turkish) invasion and the division has poisoned our relations for a generation," Papandreou said.

The island's Greek and Turkish communities have been divided since Turkish troops took over the northern third of Cyprus in 1974 in response to an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coup.

Rather than leading to a storm of recrimination and attempts to settle old scores, the remark was simply shrugged off by Cem.

"Of course there is a long road ahead and there will be problems," he said. "But it is not possible to achieve anything by being afraid of difficulties."

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders refuse to meet face-to-face, but they are now having proximity talks in Geneva in the same building. Cem said this had been one of the fruits of the new climate on both sides of the Aegean.

One year ago Ankara was furious with Greece for hiding Turkey's most wanted man, Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, at its Nairobi embassy.

Now, Turkish officials did not even bring up the fact that the political wing of Ocalan's guerrillas has an office on the same street as Greece's foreign ministry.

Both Cem and Papandreou, despite their obvious warmth for each other, have constantly urged caution.

"They are doing what they are supposed to be doing," said one European Union diplomat. "People are wrong to expect huge results from these meetings -- the fact they are actually talking is what is important."

"We are not playing to the crowds, trying to gain applause," said Cem. "But we are advancing in a quiet, steady way."

Papandreou and his ruling socialist party leader Prime Minister Costas Simitis have taken considerable domestic political risks to achieve a rapprochement with Turkey.

Even the sympathy provoked by last year's earthquakes has not been enough to convince some in Greece of the value of courting their ominously larger NATO ally Turkey.

Although Simitis accepted an invitation to pay a visit to Turkey -- the symbolic crowning of Cem's visit to Greece -- he may well put it off until the results of an election now scheduled for April 9.-Reuters