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Both Greek and Turkish statesmen described as "historical" today's visit of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Athens, which set the beginning of the work of the Supreme Council for Cooperation between Greece and Turkey. The Council will meet twice a year at ministerial level and once a year at prime ministers level and its goal is to become a forum where the ever disputing neighbors can resolve the issues that separate them. Today's first meeting ended with the signing of 21 inter-state documents including a joint declaration to facilitate the traffic through the border post Kastaneon – Pazarkyule, a settlement of cooperation in the field of investments, energy, environmental protection, a memurandum for the development of railway connections and road network between the two countries, for the establishment of joint tourist packages.
    "Even during my first visit to Turkey as a Prime Minister I found that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strong political will and courage to take difficult decisions. I think that with today's visit and with the documents which we signed he proved that", said Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart after the end of the Council meeting. "Greece has always supported us and we will support Greece in this difficult for it moment. I urge also the Greek opposition to do the same in such an important national issue like finding a way out of the economic crisis", returned the compliment Erdogan.
    Both heads of state did not hide which are the issues that divide them - Greece gave priority to the violations of Greek airspace by Turkish military aircraft and to the reunification of Cyprus. Turkish Prime Minister proposed that military aircraft from both countries which fly over the Aegean Sea to do so without armors on board - an idea to which Athens refers favorably. Regarding Cyprus the proposal of Erdogan was that in the negotiations besides the leaders of the Cypriot Greeks and Turkish Cypriots to also participate representatives from Greece, Turkey and the EU. This proposal was rejected on the part of Greece because, according to Athens in this format the negotiations led to the creation of the Annan plan, which in 2004 was adopted by the Turkish Cypriots, but was rejected by the Cypriot Greeks.
    Turkey in turn refered to the issue of giving the right to Muslims from northern Greece to choose their own mufti, and not to be appointed by the Greek State, as practiced today. "We do not choose who to be the Patriarch of the Greeks, they themselves decide on this. Why in this case the Muslims in Greece should not be able to choose their spiritual leader on their own?", rhetorically asked the Turkish Prime Minister. The second issue that he put for discussion was related to the construction of a mosque in the Greek capital, which is always postponed for some bureaucratic reasons, but actually because of the opposition of large public groups in Athens to having a mosque.
    Parallel to the meeting of the Supreme Council for Cooperation in the Athens Hilton hotel was held also a Greek-Turkish business forum organized by the Union of Greek Industrialists in which businessmen from both countries urged the politicians to overcome the problems of the past. Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Ali Babacan stressed on the need to ensure a macroeconomic balance, which is required for the normal development of the business. President of the Business Council of Turkey-Greece Dimitris Papanikolaou stressed that for the Greek business the Turkish market is No. 1 challenge in the region and that is why he has invested there over 4.5 billion euros.
    Executive director of Intralot Constantinos Andonopoulos noted that the growth in GDP of Turkey is between 4 and 4.5 per cent and this provides great opportunities for the investors there. The executive Director of S & B Evtimios Vidalis confirmed the interest of the company to continue to invest in Mining in Turkey, which according to him has a great potential. Their intentions to continue investmenting in Turkey confirmed also the representatives of the National Bank of Greece, Eurobank EFG, of the company Metko.
    The visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Athens was held under exceptional security measures. The traffic in the city center was blocked at intervals in order to facilitate the movement of officials. Queues of tourists were patiently waiting on the lines for checking luggage and documents when entering the Hilton hotel where the Turkish delegation was housed.