Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
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Wary of Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Old Foes Türkiye and Greece Test a Friendship Initiative

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis leave after speaking to the press following their meeting in Athens during Erdogan's official visit to Greece, Dec. 7, 2023. (AFP Photo)

Old foes Türkiye and Greece will test a five-month-old friendship initiative Monday when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Ankara.
The two NATO members, which share decades of mutual animosity, a tense border and disputed waters, agreed to sideline disputes last December. Instead, they’re focusing on trade and energy, repairing cultural ties and a long list of other items placed on the so-called positive agenda, The Associated Press said.
Here’s a look at what the two sides hope to achieve and the disputes that have plagued ties in the past:
FOCUSING ON A POSITIVE AGENDA Mitsotakis is to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday as part of efforts to improve ties following the solidarity Athens showed Ankara after a devastating earthquake hit southern Türkiye last year.
The two leaders have sharp differences over the Israeli-Hamas war, but are keen to hold back further instability in the eastern Mediterranean as conflict also continues to rage in Ukraine.
“We always approach our discussions with Türkiye with confidence and with no illusions that Turkish positions will not change from one moment to the next,” Mitsotakis said last week, commenting on the visit. “Nevertheless, I think it’s imperative that when we disagree, the channels of communication should always be open."
“We should disagree without tension and without this always causing an escalation on the ground," he added.
Ioannis Grigoriadis, a professor of political science at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said the two leaders would look for ways “to expand the positive agenda and look for topics where the two sides can seek win-win solutions,” such as in trade, tourism and migration.
EASY VISAS FOR TURKISH TOURISTS Erdogan visited Athens in early December, and the two countries have since maintained regular high-level contacts to promote a variety of fence-mending initiatives, including educational exchanges and tourism.
Turkish citizens this summer are able to visit 10 Greek islands using on-the-spot visas, skipping a more cumbersome procedure needed to enter Europe’s common travel area zone, known as the Schengen area.
“This generates a great opportunity for improving the economic relations between the two sides, but also to bring the two stable societies closer — for Greeks and Turks to realize that they have more things in common than they think,” Grigoriadis said.
A HISTORY OF DISPUTES Disagreements have brought Athens and Ankara close to war on several occasions over the past five decades, mostly over maritime borders and the rights to explore for resources in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas.
The two countries are also locked in a dispute over Cyprus, which was divided in 1974 when Türkiye invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Türkiye recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third.
The dispute over the exploration of energy resources resulted in a naval standoff in 2020 and a vow by Erdogan to halt talks with the Mitsotakis government. But the two men met three times last year following a thaw in relations and a broader effort by Erdogan to re-engage with Western countries.
The foreign ministers of the two countries, Hakan Fidan of Türkiye and George Gerapetritis of Greece, are set to join the talks Monday and hold a separate meeting.
RECENT DISAGREEMENTS Just weeks before Mitsotakis’ visit, Erdogan announced the opening of a former Byzantine-era church in Istanbul as a mosque, drawing criticism from Greece and the Greek Orthodox church. Like Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia, the Chora had operated as a museum for decades before it was converted into a mosque.
Türkiye, meanwhile, has criticized recently announced plans by Greece to declare areas in the Ionian and Aegean seas as “marine parks” to conserve aquatic life. Türkiye objects to the one-sided declaration in the Aegean, where some areas remain under dispute, and has labeled the move as “a step that sabotages the normalization process.”
Grigoriadis said Türkiye and Greece could focus on restoring derelict Ottoman monuments in Greece and Greek Orthodox monuments in Türkiye. “That would be an opportunity” for improved ties, he said.



Amid Ceasefire Push, Palestinians Released from Israeli Jails Bear Mental, Physical Scars

A combination image shows Palestinian Moazaz Obaiyat in an undated handout image as he trains in a gym, prior to his arrest, near Bethlehem and Obaiyat in a screengrab from video, as he walks after being released from an Israeli jail, near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 8, 2024. Saddam Obaiyat/Handout and REUTERS TV/File photo
A combination image shows Palestinian Moazaz Obaiyat in an undated handout image as he trains in a gym, prior to his arrest, near Bethlehem and Obaiyat in a screengrab from video, as he walks after being released from an Israeli jail, near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 8, 2024. Saddam Obaiyat/Handout and REUTERS TV/File photo
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Amid Ceasefire Push, Palestinians Released from Israeli Jails Bear Mental, Physical Scars

A combination image shows Palestinian Moazaz Obaiyat in an undated handout image as he trains in a gym, prior to his arrest, near Bethlehem and Obaiyat in a screengrab from video, as he walks after being released from an Israeli jail, near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 8, 2024. Saddam Obaiyat/Handout and REUTERS TV/File photo
A combination image shows Palestinian Moazaz Obaiyat in an undated handout image as he trains in a gym, prior to his arrest, near Bethlehem and Obaiyat in a screengrab from video, as he walks after being released from an Israeli jail, near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 8, 2024. Saddam Obaiyat/Handout and REUTERS TV/File photo

Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine-month spell in Israeli custody left him unable to walk unaided upon his release in July. Then, in an October pre-dawn raid on his home, soldiers detained him again.

Before being re-arrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time at Israel's remote Ktz'iot prison, according to medical notes seen by Reuters from the hospital, a public clinic in the occupied West Bank.

The notes said Obaiyat was subjected to "physical and psychological violence and torture" in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussion of traumatic events and current affairs. Alleged abuses and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps are in renewed focus amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire that could see the release of thousands of inmates detained during the Gaza war and before, in return for Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

In the event of the release of detainees in any future deal, many “will require long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat’s case.

For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Israel since the war’s outbreak after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. All were held for months, accused of affiliating with an illegal organization, and released without being formally charged or convicted of any crime.

All described lasting psychological scars they attributed to abuses including beatings, sleep and food deprivation and prolonged restraint in stress positions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held.

Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that reported grave abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention. An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described substantiated reports of widespread "torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions" in prisons since the war began. The UN office has also said Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The White House has called the reports of torture, rape and abuse in Israel's prisons “deeply concerning.”

In response to Reuters questions, the Israeli military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of Gazan detainees by military personnel but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse within its detention facilities. The military declined to comment on individual cases. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), which falls under hard-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country's internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.

“Terrorists in Israeli prisons are granted supervised living conditions and accommodations appropriate for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to Reuters questions, adding that the facilities operate in accordance with the law. "The 'summer camp' is over," Ben Gvir's office said.

Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms the men recounted were common and can echo through victims’ lifetimes, often shattering their families.

"Torture in Israeli prisons has exploded since October 7. It will have and already has had a devastating effect on Palestinian society," said Steiner.

Speaking from his hospital bed in July, a severely emaciated Obaiyat called the treatment of himself and fellow prisoners "disgusting," showing scars on his wasted legs and describing isolation, hunger, handcuffs and abuse with metal rods, without giving details.

Photos of Obaiyat taken before his incarceration show a powerfully-built man.

On Dec. 19, Israel’s High Court ordered the state to answer a petition brought by rights groups about the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners. Israel has also reported mistreatment of some of the 251 of its citizens taken captive to Gaza after the Hamas attacks. A report by the Israeli Health Ministry, published on Saturday said hostages were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied abuse of the hostages.

WITHOUT CHARGE

Obaiyat is currently being held in a small detention center in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.

He is being held for six months under "administrative detention", a form of incarceration without charge or trial, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown, the group said. Israel’s military, internal security service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.

PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians had died in custody during the war, compared to just one or two annually in the years preceding the conflict. Israel’s military said it launches criminal investigations of all deaths of Palestinians in its custody.

Palestinian prisoner numbers have at least doubled in Israel and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.

Through the course of the war, around 6,000 Gazans have been incarcerated, the Israeli military said in response to a query from Reuters.

Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under military law, Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under its Unlawful Combatants Law.

The law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or as prisoners under military occupation, and incarcerate them for extended periods without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli scholar who specialises in human rights and international law at London's Queen Mary University.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club likened the detentions to forced disappearance. Israel's prison service declined to comment on prisoner numbers and deaths.

SDE TEIMAN CAMP

Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of a couple dozen Palestinians released at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Aug. 20.

Radi described struggling to stretch out his limbs after being cuffed and chained for four months at Israel's Sde Teiman military detention camp, officially a temporary prisoner sorting facility.

"They didn't interrogate us, they destroyed us," said Radi.

Located in the Negev desert, Sde Teiman has been the site of grave abuses including rape, according to allegations by whistleblowers among the camp’s guards.

Israel is currently investigating what the UN called "a particularly gruesome case" of alleged sexual abuse at Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of anally penetrating a detainee with a rod that punctured his internal organs.

Radi said he was beaten repeatedly and arbitrarily, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hung up in stress positions and forced to sit on the floor almost constantly without moving.

At one point, he said he was deprived of sleep for five consecutive days in a space he said Israeli soldiers called the ‘disco room,' subjected to loud music. He did not describe sexual violence.

Radi said he found it difficult to sleep and that even talking about his ordeal made him relive it.

"Every time I say the words, I visualise the torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on March 4.

Reuters could not independently verify his story. The Israeli military said it was unable to comment, saying it could not find Radi's files because Reuters was unable to provide his ID number.

Despite a government decision to phase out Sde Teiman, the camp is still operational, PCATI said.

OFER AND KTZ’IOT

Widespread abuses have also been reported at more established facilities, such as the Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.

After collating evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, Israeli rights group B'Tselem earlier this year released a report accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a 'network of torture camps'.

Using emergency legislation introduced after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ben Gvir, the hardline minister, ordered conditions be downgraded for 'security prisoners', a category almost entirely comprising Palestinians.

Human rights scholar Gordon likened what he said was the use of torture in Israel's prisons to terrorism.

"Terrorism usually is an act that's limited in the number of people directly impacted, but the psychosocial effect is dramatic. It’s the same with torture," said Gordon, who co-edited a book on abuses in the Israeli prison system.