Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during his official visit to Turkey on February 5-6.
The ecumenical patriarch said the Greek PM will visit the Greek community on the island of Heybeliada (known by Greeks as Halki) and the Theological Seminary on Wednesday.
He added that he would join the Greek Orthodox community in celebrating the memorial day of Patriarch Photius of Constantinople at the Seminary, which was shut down by Turkey in 1971.
Bartholomew expressed the hope that “this visit of the Greek prime minister will contribute decisively to the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations, for the sake of both sides.”
Tsipras is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday.
The leaders are expected to discuss bilateral issues and peace talks on Cyprus, which are currently stalled. The island of Cyprus has been split between the Republic of Cyprus and the self-named “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” ever since the Turkish invasion of 1974.
Earlier in the week, the Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar invited his new Greek counterpart Evangelos Apostolakis to visit Turkey.
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