Greece plans to make it easier for Turkish citizens to visit some of the Aegean islands for a limited period of time by granting them a temporary visa, people familiar with the matter said.
The initiative, which would revive an earlier procedure, may be announced during the visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Athens on Thursday for the High-Level Cooperation Council, people familiar with the move said, on the condition of anonymity. The European Commission has approved Athens’ decision to grant this temporary visa, one of them added.
“There is an open discussion, which is going very well, with the European Commission,” on the matter, Greece’s Migration minister Dimitris Kairidis said in a ERT TV interview Monday. “It’s not a matter of agreement with Turkey. It is our decision in cooperation with the European Commission, because we belong to Schengen,” the minister said, referring to the bloc’s border-control-free travel zone.
Greece reckons detente can…