Athens mayor Kostas Bakoyannis is hosting Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on a two-day cultural tour of the city.
The mayors of Greece and Turkey’s capital cities met to discuss relations at the Athens City Hall on Tuesday.
Bakoyannis said “problems are solved from the bottom up. People create them and people solve them. Even if they are created by governments or – to be precise – regimes, they can be solved by the people.”
“Our differences are real, but local administration is the closest democratic institution to the citizen and this allows us to be able to interpret human emotions more effectively.”
Imamoglu endorsed stronger relations between the two cities.
“Friendship between the two countries is not one of the solutions, it is the only solution,” he said.
Imamoglu and Bakoyannis earlier met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Bakoyannis went on to treat his counterpart to a tour of the Acropolis and a show at the Herodeon theatre.
Imamoglu’s visit will close with a tour of the Ancient Agora, Syntagma Square, and Zappion on Wednesday.
The pair signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the fields of culture and tourism in Istanbul in May.
Source: Ekathimerini
