Brussels, 10/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Prime Ministers Georgios Papandreou of Greece and Recep Tayyip Erdoðan of Turkey met in the town of Erzurum on Friday 7 January to demonstrate that there was no ill feeling between them after Greece announced that it intended to erect a fence along its land border with Turkey. The purpose of the 12.5 kilometre long fence will be to prevent the arrival of further illegal immigrants.
“We place great importance on our cooperation with Turkey on the issue of illegal immigration,” Papandreou is cited by Reuters as saying. He added that construction of this fence was in no way connected with Turkey's accession to the EU. Papandreou, indeed, repeated his desire to see Turkey become part of the EU as soon as the Cypriot issue was resolved
Erdogan played down the significance of the fence, stating that “this is not a measure against Turkey or against Greece” and that it should not be seen as a barrier - “We each have full confidence in the other on this issue”. (Cor./transl.rt)