New Greek Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis was meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar at roughly noon (local time) in Brussels, on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial summit in the Belgian capital.
New Greek Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis was meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar at roughly noon (local time) in Brussels, on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial summit in the Belgian capital.
Apostolakis retired as Greece's armed forces chief of staff last month, witih the rank of navy admiral, a day after being appointed as the new defense minister. He succeeded controversial minister and one-time junior coalition partner Panos Kammenos, the head of a now floundering small right-wing party in Parliament.
Both Akar and Apostolakis were appointed as defense ministers while serving as the heads of the respective armed forces, with the former promoted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the wake of a failed coup against him in 2016.