ANKARA (AFP) — Turkey and Greece pledged Wednesday to build on a spectacular thaw in their once-stormy bilateral ties, but at the same time they exposed their differences on how to resolve long-standing contentious issues such as sovereignty in the Aegean Sea.
"I am here to show Greece's desire, which is to go beyond the difficulties of the past and to look towards the future with hope," Costas Karamanlis, the first Greek prime minister to visit Turkey in 50 years, told a joint press conference with Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
For his part, Erdogan said: "I believe 2008 will present us with new opportunities in our bilateral ties."
Even though both leaders said they had reached agreement to pursue further talks on resolving territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea, they also made clear how far apart they were on the method to tackle the problem.
"We continue to maintain our stand that the issue of continental shelf rights be taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and believe the dispute can be resolved peacefully," Karamanlis said.
"Improvement in our ties can only be done on the basis of international law and international conventions."
Erdogan, on the other hand, underlined his desire for Athens and Ankara to settle their differences in bilateral talks which began in January 2002, but which have so far produced no public result.
Turkey and Greece -- allies in NATO -- have greatly improved their ties since 1999 when they helped each other after devastating earthquakes, they are still at odds over the boundaries of their air space and territorial waters in the Aegean Sea.
Mutual accusations of territorial violations continue on an almost daily basis.
Greece is also bitter over Ankara's refusal to endorse Istanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew I as the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians and the continued closure of an Orthodox seminary.
Karamanlis urged Ankara to address both issues, underlining that minority rights are an important criteria for membership in the European Union, which Turkey is seeking.
"Turkey will become an EU member if it fulfills its obligations to the bloc," he said.
Erdogan said the ecumenical title of Bartholomew I was "an issue question for the Christian Orthodox community," and refrained from making a commitment on the seminary, saying his government was working on the matter.
The Turkish leader, meanwhile, urged his Greek counterpart to press for a resumption of peace talks in Cyprus, which has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the island's northern third in response to a Greek Cypriot coup.
Efforts to reunite the island have stalled since 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming backing.
Athens continues to back the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government in Cyprus, while Ankara is the only capital to recognise the state declared by the Turkish minority in the island's north.
"I expect my friend Costas to make an effort for relaunching peace negotiations" after Greek Cypriot presidential elections in February, Erdogan said.
Karamanlis said his country believed that the island should be reunified under a "just, lasting and comprehensive settlement".
Despite political differences, the two countries have achieved more progress in the economic field, with a significant increase in bilateral trade and mutual investments.
In November, Karamanlis and Erdogan inaugurated a pipeline to carry gas from Azerbaijan to Greece via Turkey, hailed as a symbol of a new era of economic cooperation.
Karamanlis is scheduled to hold talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Thursday and travel on to Istanbul for meetings with the head of the Orthodox Church and Turkish business people on Friday.
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