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Greece, Turkey to Hold New Round of Exploratory Talks

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias hold a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias hold a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
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Greece, Turkey to Hold New Round of Exploratory Talks

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias hold a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias hold a news conference in Ankara, Turkey April 15, 2021. Turkish Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Greece and Turkey will hold a new round of exploratory talks on Feb. 22 in Athens, the Greek Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, as the two NATO-allies seek to address their differences in the Mediterranean.

Greece and Turkey disagree on a range of issues from airspace to maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus.

After a five-year hiatus and months of tensions, the two countries agreed last year to resume talks in an effort to reach common ground and allow for formal negotiations to begin.

Athens and Ankara have held three rounds of talks since then but they still appear far apart.

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Erdogan Says Won't Let Terror 'Drag Syria Back to Instability'

Syria's newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, February 4, 2025. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via Reuters)
Syria's newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, February 4, 2025. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via Reuters)
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Erdogan Says Won't Let Terror 'Drag Syria Back to Instability'

Syria's newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, February 4, 2025. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via Reuters)
Syria's newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Türkiye, February 4, 2025. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via Reuters)

Türkiye will not allow extremists to drag Syria back into chaos and instability, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after a suicide attack killed 22 at a Damascus church.

"We will never allow our neighbor and brother Syria... be dragged into a new environment of instability through proxy terrorist organizations," he said, vowing to support the new government's fight against such groups.

He did not explain what he meant by "proxy" groups but vowed that Türkiye would "continue to support the Syrian government’s fight against terrorism", AFP reported.

The Damascus government blamed Sunday night's shooting and suicide attack -- the first of its kind in the Syrian capital since the fall of strongman Bashar al-Assad six months ago -- on ISIS militants.

It cast the attack as a bid to "undermine national coexistence and to destabilize the country", which only began emerging from the post-civil war chaos after Assad's ouster six months ago.

Türkiye was a key backer of the HTS who ousted Assad under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa, now the interim president, and has repeatedly offered its operational and military to fight ISIS and other militant threats.