Confirmed as the race leader in opinion polls ahead of Greece’s October 4 2009 snap general elections, opposition socialist party Pasok is seeking to add the handling of relations with Turkey to its list of the failures of the Costas Karamanlis government.
 
Karamanlis’s conservative New Democracy government had been "lax" in dealing with Ankara, Pasok leader George Papandreou has charged.
 
Athens and Ankara are at odds over a number of sensitive and long-standing issues, among them Cyprus, an upswing of incursions in summer 2009 by Turkish jet fighters into airspace claimed by Athens, and Athens’s allegations that Turkey is failing to act to block illegal immigrants making their way towards Europe.
 
Papandreou, in televised debates and public speeches, has vowed to take a tough line against Turkish jets flying into air space claimed by Greece.
 
He alleged that, in office, Karamanlis had lost more than one opportunity to rectify relations with Turkey.
 
Papandreou said that if he became prime minister, he would seek to improve relations with Ankara but said that Turkey would have to put more effort into meeting European Union standards if the EU accession hopeful wanted a positive progress report at the end of this year.
 
Karamanlis, who rejects Pasok’s claims that he has failed to be tough enough on Turkey, sent a direct message to Ankara while speaking at an election rally on September 23. He said that Turkey should respect a 2001 readmission agreement on illegal immigrants, enforce the European Immigration and Asylum Pact.
 
On Cyprus, Karamanlis called on Turkey to join in efforts to achieve a solution in the context of United Nations resolutions.
 
In a television debate on September 22, Karamanlis said that Greece had been dealing with Turkey in the framework of international law.
 
Greece supported Turkey’s EU aspirations, on condition that Ankara fulfilled its obligations, Karamanlis said.