In this summer, in the opposite direction of the Aegean Sea, the heels of the heels are well coming from the Turkish coast to the drawn on the north-east coast of Lesbos.
Two excellent fish restaurants are filled on the coast, and Turkish is the main language hearing at lunch.
Family with children from Turkish city of Izmi, a group of ports of Aywalik who arrived at the brand-new catamran connection, and a young couple from Istanbul are among the food and drinkers in this picturesque settings.
Isin and her lover are going to the island for the first time. “Friends told us a lot of good things about Lesbos, and we decided to come here for a few days,” Isin told DW.
The couple of Istanbul, who arrived at the dickili from the dickili, loved the beaches and inn of the island, and are firm to come back in the next summer.
The crossing simply looks under hours, the ticket price is € 35 ($ 40), and in summer there are eight trips a day from the island’s capital Dikili.
On the Greek side of the Aegean, the atmosphere is more relaxed for the Turks, which is a drink, or for Turkey who wants to sunk in his bikini.
“I feel very comfortable here,” Isin said that her lover put an ozo.
Cheap return for lesbos on ticket
In July alone, around 29,000 Turkish tourists visited Lesbos, and more expected in August.
Local restaurants are very happy with their guest from neighboring country.
“They appreciate good food, they prefer to drink our famous Aniseed Shnaps Ozo, they are not stingy, and mostly ther theria ery -favorable and relaxed,” Tacis said, which runs a inn in Gera Bay.
“We are seen by the middle class of Türkiye, who are looking for a quiet place.”
Many Greek islands have become ineffective for average earnings on both sides of Aegean, but Lesbos is not one of them: the island is now a caked in the island compared to the Turkish holiday sites of Bozcaada, Bodrum, or Assos on the Azian.
Can tourism heal past wounds?
Since the rebellion of the Greeks within the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, the resulting as an independent Greece, and the Greco-Turkish was in 1922, the relationship between the two countries has become more favorable in part due to tourism.
The people of Lesbos are no more or less nationalists than the rest of the Greek, but they have opportunities to meet the “enemy” across the sea peacefully.
Turkish tourists on the streets of MyTilene are considered not as invaders, but as a reception.
It was no coincidence that Nicos Giankas, deputy mayor of Myteline, responsible for tourism, waited for the arrival of the Mayor of Balikasir in Türkiye.
Ahmat Akin traveled to Lesbos on 1 August, as well as 150 tourists through the new Catmaran route.
The new line Ethylin is the eleventh overall ethics connecting Ethylin between Aywalik and Lesbos and Türkiye, including the route from Izmi and Petra.
According to Giannakas, the new MyTilene-Ayvalik line will help promote tourism and trade between Lesbos and Türkiye, will give more options to passengers, and will strengthen the border crossing.
Last year, around 120,000 people came to Lesbos by boat from Türkiye, and they would like to welcome more visitors in 2025.
Can tourism help reduce goodwill stress?
Tourism and cooperation on refugee and migration issues are the only success stories in Greek-Turki relations as Prime Minister Kiriyakos Mitsotkis and President Recep Taiep Erdogan signed Greece and Turkey in December 2023 with a friendship and cooperation agreement in December 2023.
In principle, both governments have a political will to discuss prickly issues in bilateral relations.
The thesis involves performing marine borders between the two countries – but so far, nothing has come. Right now, neither Athens nor Ankara are ready to compromise.
There are minor disputes going on on the airspace and regional water.
Turkish demands that it should be consulted on Greece’s plans for laying a power cable between Rit and Cyprus.
When it is not asked, it sends its warships to the Aegean Sea, as was on the coast of Kasos in the fall of 2024.
The latest tension between the two countries reached the peak on July 21 when Athens announced that it would Estav to two new sea parks in the Eonian Sea and Southern Azian.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry was in a hurry to react, given that “unilateral measures in closed or semi-close seizes should be discovered as Azian and the Mediterranean Sea.”
In fact, the sea parks are only for environmental protection, but behind every map of the agen presented by Garesi or Türkiye, the other side looks at a provocation.
Ankara immediately reacted on August 2 when the authorities presented maps of their own “protected maritime areas” from the Northern Azian and the Gulf of Antalya in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Greek Foreign Ministry saw the Turkish announcement as “unacceptable, unilateral and illegal acts, which have no legally impact on Greek seminity and does not disregard a complete disregard for the international maritime law.”
Turkish tourists on Lesbos, however, are not disturbed by the thesis that reduce political controversies – they are very busy enjoying the beauty of the island.
This article was the original published in German.
