Greek and Turkish leaders seek to stress thawing relations but tensions remain under the surface

ISTANBUL (AP) — The leaders of Greece and Turkey met Monday for talks aimed at underlining their efforts to put aside decades-old disputes, but they also revealed deep divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara following the two-hour face-to-face summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jumped on comments by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in which he described Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“I do not see Hamas as a terror group, ” Erdogan said. “I see it as a group of people trying to protect their own land.” He also revealed that Turkey was currently treating “more than 1,000 Hamas members” in its hospitals.

Greece, like most Western states, considers Hamas a terrorist organization but Erdogan repeated his reference to the group as a “resistance organization.”

The leaders were meeting for the fourth time in the past year in a bid to strengthen a normalization process.