Tom Barrack (left) speaks with Kathimerini’s Manolis Kostidis outside the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, following the US ambassador’s meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Thursday, November 27. Barrack’s visit to Phanar coincided with the arrival of Pope Leo XIV for the Nicaea summit.
Greece and Turkey agree on few things: One is the consensus, in place since early 2023, to keep tensions in the Aegean low.
Another is their skepticism regarding the declaration of US Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack, in an interview last week with Kathimerini’s Turkey correspondent Manolis Kostidis, that his country wishes to serve as a “bridge” between the two countries.
Athens worries that this declaration, by someone known to be close to US President Donald Trump, expresses a will to resolve, fairly quickly, the divisive bilateral issues, plus the Cyprus division impasse. And, while many in Greece welcomed some aspects of Barrack’s statements, there is a worry that the US will demand that both countries abandon the “red lines” beyond which they will not retreat.
But both Ankara and Athens believe that current US priorities in the Mediterranean are Syria and Libya.