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 most dinner Türkiye is speaking.
Family with children from Turkish city of Izmi, a group in the port city 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 setting.
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 arrived from Dikili from Ferry and loved the beaches and inn of the island. They are firm to come back in the next summer.
The crossing from Turkey simply costs within hours, a ticket price is € 35 ($ 40) and in summer, there are eight trips a day from the island 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 a shot of Ozo Licker.
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, the deputy mayor of Myteline responsible for tourism, was enthusiastically awaited the arrival of Turkish Mayor of Balikasir, Ahmat Akin, Wahe on 1 August visited Lesbos with 150 tourists via the new Catamaran Marg on 1 August.
The new line is including routes, including the routes of Izmir and Petra, between MyTilene and Lesbos and Turkey, connecting the new line eight.
According to Jianakas, the new MyTilene-Ayvalik line will help promote tourism and trade between Lesbos and Türkiye, will give more options to passengers and strengthen the boundary cross relationship.
Last year, around 120,000 people came to Lesbos by boat from Türkiye, and the island 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. For example, Greece plans should be consulted for laying a power cable between Turkish, Cract and Cyprus. When it is not asked, Ankara sends his warship to the Aegean Sea, as was away from the coast of Kasos in the fall of 2024.
The latest tension between the two countries rose to peak on 21 July when Athens announced that it would remove two new marine 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, offering maps of its “preserved maritime area” of Turkey in the Northern Agean and Eastern Mediterranean, from Rhodes to the Gulf of Antalya.
The Greek Foreign Ministry described the Turkish announcement as “unacceptable, unilateral and illegal acts, which has no legal impact on Greek Segonity and not a complete neglect to international maritime law.”
Turkish tourists on Lesbos, however, are not troubled by these rumble political controversies – they are very busy enjoying the beauty of the island.
This article was original in German.
