The rapprochement process between Greece and Turkey began with a letter that broke the orthodoxy of the securitised discourse about Greece in Turkish foreign policy. Hence, the letter by Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs İsmail Cem to his Greek counterpart, George Papandreou, on 24 May 1999 in order to discuss terrorism constitutes a milestone in the relationship between Turkey and Greece. Cem's letter triggered a change in discourse which was followed by political engagement between the two countries. Accordingly, this chapter will focus on the instance of a slow but sure rapprochement process, which lasted until 2016; it will analyse the period based on different forms of desecuritsation. The rapid changes from securitisation to desecuritisation, or vice versa, in Turkish foreign policy towards Greece reveal the constructed nature of security and shed light on the overarching politics of securitisation and desecuritisation, in line with the various objectives of the ruling governments (Baysal and Dizdaroğlu, 2022).

Several days after the exchange of letters between the two foreign ministers, İsmail Cem and George Papandreou met at Kosovo's Friends meeting in New York, under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General, on 3 July 1999. They agreed on an action plan, which paved the way for establishing five working groups in the areas of ‘organised crime, drug trafficking, illegal migration and terrorism’, ‘tourism’, ‘environment’ and ‘culture’ and ‘trade’. Upon his return from the meetings in New York, Cem evaluated the negotiations with his Greek counterpart as follows: ‘Turkey has agreements with various countries on the fight against terrorism. Therefore, dealing with an agreement with Turkey on the very same issue would be the first step for Greece to get over the shadow of terrorism’ (The Directorate General of Press and Information, 1 July 1999). Moreover, he pointed out the importance of the action plan by saying that an effort was being made ‘without raising high expectations, without being too assertive’ (Turkish Daily News, 4 July 1999).

Following the two foreign ministers’ consensus on the establishment of working groups during their meeting in New York, the first working group met in Athens on 5–6 July 1999, to initiate cooperation in the proposed fields (Evin, 2005, 397).