Relationship dossier
Turkey
Greece
Relationship assessment
Dialogue and practical cooperation coexist with unresolved Aegean, maritime and Cyprus disputes.
Turkey toward Greece
-10Turkey signed the 2023 Athens Declaration with Greece and pursued renewed high-level dialogue. A 2024 arrangement also facilitated visits by Turkish citizens to Greek islands. These cooperative steps coexist with Turkey's disputes with Greece over Aegean maritime claims, airspace and Cyprus.
Greece toward Turkey
-5Greece joined Turkey in the 2023 Athens Declaration and renewed high-level dialogue, while a 2024 arrangement facilitated visits by Turkish citizens to Greek islands. Greece continues to contest Turkey's positions on Aegean maritime claims and related disputes, which remain unresolved.
Overall relationship
-10The relationship has a durable pattern of disputes over Aegean rights, maritime boundaries and Cyprus, alongside periodic diplomacy intended to prevent escalation. The 2023 declaration and practical travel cooperation mark meaningful engagement, but do not settle the underlying disagreements.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Turkey and Greece combine recurring disputes over the Aegean, maritime claims and Cyprus with sustained efforts to manage tensions. Their governments renewed high-level dialogue and signed the 2023 Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighbourliness. A 2024 arrangement facilitating visits by Turkish citizens to Greek islands also provided a practical area of cooperation. These initiatives have not resolved the central disputes.
Areas of tension
- Competing claims over maritime boundaries and continental-shelf or exclusive-economic-zone rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.
- Disagreements over Aegean airspace and military activity around the islands.
- The unresolved Cyprus conflict and the parties' differing positions on its settlement.
Key developments
Turkey and Greece signed the Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighbourliness, renewing commitments to dialogue and cooperation.
A visa arrangement enabled Turkish citizens to visit designated Greek islands through a facilitated process.
Major uncertainties
- The extent to which recent dialogue will produce durable agreements on Aegean and maritime disputes is unclear.
- The implementation and longer-term scope of practical cooperation, including the Greek-island visa arrangement, remain uncertain.