“By building a wall, you transfer the problem elsewhere…”

The unofficial meeting between Giorgos Papandreou and Erdogan in Erzurum is scheduled for 10am today. It will be the second meeting between the two men in two months, and one can easily guess the discussion topics: oil, continental shelves, the Cyprus dispute, Halki etc.

However, the Turks are already bringing a specific issue for discussion, which is non other than the decision of the Greek government to build a fence on the Evros river across the Turkish borders, in order to deal with the continuous flow of illegal immigrants from the neighboring country.

«The building of a wall in the Greek/Turkish border is not a solution, but will just transfer the problem elsewhere» said the Turkish minister of State and head of negotiations for the E.U., Egemen Bagis, on Thursday.

The Anatolian agency reported that Bagis was answering questions from the press and society after the news about the building of the wall.

He reportedly said that «the decision about the wall along the Greek/Turkish borders does not turn against the Turkish citizens», but it is quite clear that Ankara is opposing the Greek decision.

Meanwhile the Turkish press, citing political and diplomatic sources, claims this issue, as well that of illegal immigration in general, will dominate the talks at Erzerum.

This comes only a few hours after the President of the Democracy, Karolos Papoulias, sent a clear message to Turkey from Evros, where he went for the Theophany day celebration, about the issue of illegal immigration, asking for better border controls and a «direct and tangible» implementation of the Greek/Turkish Protocol of Readmission.