Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın made a visit to Athens on Aug. 28, meeting his Greek counterpart Themistoklis Demiris, head of the National Intelligence Service (EYP), at its headquarters, and the trip was publicized to media with a week delay, as a rare example.
According to Anadolu Agency, citing security sources, the two discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, and considered possible steps toward resolving outstanding disputes between the two countries.
The report said the talks underscored the critical importance of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, NATO security, intelligence cooperation, counterterrorism, organized crime, and the fight against irregular migration and human trafficking to the bilateral relationship. The agenda also extended to the US-Iran confrontation, the new period in Syria, Libya's political unification, the Palestine issue, “Israel's ongoing violations and occupation policies in Gaza and the West Bank”, and Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon.
According to Greek media reports, the talks covered an unusually wide agenda: the presence of an estimated 300 Turkish organized-crime figures, from roughly 15 networks, believed to have operated in Greece over the past four years; migrant smuggling, including a handful of Turkish nationals suspected of coordinating crossings from the Turkish coast; counterterrorism; and regional flashpoints including the Southeastern Mediterranean, developments in Syria and Libya, and rising Turkey-Israel tension.
Both sides were said to have agreed that recent momentum in joint efforts against terrorism and organized crime should continue and move to a more strategic footing.
Kathimerini and several Greek outlets have reported that Kalın and Demiris went on from EYP headquarters to the Maximos Mansion, where they were received by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The visit has fueled speculation in Greek media about whether Kalın was also carrying a message from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a tense moment in bilateral relations, amid disputes over Aegean marine parks, the Greece-Israel 'Achilles' Shield' defense agreement, and the 'Mecca Mutual Defense Accord' Turkey signed on Aug. 7.
Greek reporting has been explicit that the Athens meeting was reciprocal: Demiris had travelled to Ankara at an earlier time to meet Kalın there. That is at least the second documented contact between the two chiefs, and it is not the first between the two services at this level.
On May 13, 2024, Demiris accompanied Mitsotakis to Ankara for the Greek premier's meeting with Erdoğan and held his own talks there with Kalın — an encounter Greek media covered at the time as confirmation of an active, if low-profile, MİT-EYP channel focused on migration, human trafficking and terrorism.
