Turkey not opposed to Greek border barrier plan

Turkey voiced no opposition yesterday to Greece’s plans for a barrier on parts of their shared border to stem illegal immigration to the European Union, as the two countries pledged to step up cooperation.

“To call this a wall would be wrong. It is only a barrier. We discussed the issue and we have full confidence in each other,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a televised news conference with his Greek counterpart George Papandreou.

The two leaders met in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, where Mr Papandreou attended as a guest in a conference of senior Turkish diplomats.

Mr Erdogan said he was impressed to learn that Greece currently hosted about one million illigal immigrants, most of whom reached the country through Turkey.

“The figures are very, very high and they influenced my opinion,” he said.

Mr Papandreou stressed the barrier plan did not target Turkish citizens.

“We are speaking about a common problem.... We cooperate on this problem and we had a very constructive discussion,” he said through an interpreter.

“I am confident we will take our cooperation farther... We have to convince the Europeans that we have a very serious and close cooperation with Turkey on the problem of illegal immigration,” he added.