TURKEY: Mitsotakis, Erdogan To Hold Call On Afghanistan 1930 Local Time

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will hold a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this evening at 1930 local time (1230ET, 1730BST, 1830CET) to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, with particular focus on the potential refugee flows from the country following the Taliban takeover.

• Both Turkey and Greece are already home to a huge number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and migrants due to the Syrian Civil War and the spread of IS in the late 2010s. There are concerns in both Ankara and Athens that the flow of individuals could accelerate dramatically in the coming weeks and months.
• For Greece - with backing from the EU - the main objective is to stop migrants making the dangerous sea crossing from mainland Turkey to the Greek islands, which already house thousands in makeshift camps.
• Turkey is attempting to ease EU fears about mass migration to Europe via Turkey (with the expectation that the EU will provide significant funding to keep migrants in Turkey). However, Erdogan is also positioning Turkey as a diplomatic and military player in Afghanistan, talking up discussions held between Turkish officials and the Taliban in recent days.
• Relations between Greece and Turkey, a constant source of tension in the East Med, remain in a poor state. Recent comments by the Turkish Cypriot president eschewing the prospect of reunification of the island and efforts by Turkish authorities to resettle an abandoned previously Greek town caused an outcry in Nicosia and Athens. Earlier in the summer, Turkish authorities also decried the lack of assistance offered by Greece as Turkey's wildfires began to rage (this criticism halted when Greece began to suffer its own huge fires).