Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reviews the Presidential Guard with Greece's President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, during the welcome ceremony in Athens, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017. Erdogan arrived in Athens Thursday for a two-day official visit, the first official visit by a Turkish president in decades, with Greece hoping the trip will help improve often frosty ties with its neighbour. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
December 07, 2017 - 3:01 AM
ATHENS, Greece - The Latest on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Greece (all times local):
1 p.m.
The first official visit by a Turkish president to Greece for six decades has got off to a tense start, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeating comments about the need to "update" the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that delineated the borders of modern Turkey, among other issues.
Erdogan arrived Thursday for a two-day visit that will also include a trip to northeastern Greece to meet with the country's Muslim minority. His first meeting was with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, and the televised discussions between the two men were visibly awkward.
Erdogan insisted the Treaty of Lausanne should be updated and also raised the issue of the Muslim minority in northeastern Greece.
Pavlopoulos said the treaty was in need "neither of revision nor of updating."
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12 p.m.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Athens for the first official visit to Greece by a Turkish president in decades, with Greece hoping the trip will help improve often frosty ties with its neighbour and NATO ally.
Erdogan was greeted by an honour guard at the airport and headed to central Athens, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other officials. On Friday, he travels to northeastern Greece to meet with members of the country's Muslim minority.
Security was tight in the Greek capital, with roads shut down and demonstrations banned in the centre of Athens.
On the eve of his arrival, Erdogan alarmed Greek officials by saying in an interview with Greece's Skai television that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which determined current Greek-Turkish borders among other issues, should be "updated."
News from © The Associated Press, 2017