US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack listens during a meeting between President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House, on Sept. 25, 2025, in Washington. [Evan Vucci/AP]
The intention of the Trump administration to act as a mediator between Greece and Turkey, both on their bilateral relations as well as on the regional framework, was clearly reiterated by the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, in an interview with Kathimerini.
Barrack’s words carry extra weight as he is not only the ambassador in Ankara and a personal friend of Donald Trump, but he also serves as the US president’s special envoy on Syria. Hence, he is working on a wider regional perspective.
His statement confirms that Washington is keen on “facilitating” the establishment of a regional framework based on cooperation which would produce tangible commercial benefits for all the players involved.
Of course, the distance between a third actor offering to facilitate a process, and actually having one of the prospective participants drop maximalist aims and change long-standing postures, in order to allow the effort to come to fruition, is not small.
“It all starts with communication. And communication is driven by prosperity, more than it is with fear,” he said and pointed to, among other things, the fossil fuel resources of the Caspian Sea for which Turkey and Greece are the gateway to the Mediterranean and Europe.
Barrack noted that he is a close friend of the new American ambassador in Athens, Kimberly Guilfoyle, with whom he has discussed the president’s vision of bringing Greece and Turkey closer “bit by bit,” with Washington acting as a “bridge,” and at the same time creating “a new regional ordinance of dealing with each other,” part of which would be solving the Cyprus issue.
A step in the broader effort of creating a more positive climate would be the reopening of the Halki Seminary, possibly in the fall of 2026, although it is not a bilateral Greek-Turkey issue, but rather one of religious freedom.
It is worth noting that the interview took place on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s historic visit to the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, as the heads of Western and Eastern Christianity pledged to work toward restored full communion, after commemorating the AD 325 Council of Nicaea.