European Parliament's standing rapporteur on Turkey called for using the positive "mood" between Ankara and Brussels to improve long-stalled relations.
"We now have a different mood," Nacho Sanchez Amor told Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
"Let's use this period to advance ... in our relations, and that includes, of course, the relations with Greece," Sanchez added.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987, and its accession talks began in 2005. But negotiations stalled in 2007 due to objections of the Greek Cypriot administration, as well as opposition from Germany and France.
Noting the direct contact between Turkey and Greece, Sanchez said: "This is excellent."
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu always talks about "his friend" and his Greek counterpart Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Sanchez said.
"There is a good mood, now let's use this period to try to advance in some focus to close quarrels that we had in the past and try to come to the future together."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday in Istanbul.
Sanchez Amor is a member of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and is the EP's rapporteur on Turkey.
- 'New opportunity for EU-Turkey relations'
Hailing the Turkish president's remarks at the high-level event in Antalya, Sanchez said: "We are happy to hear from President Erdogan what he said yesterday in the opening of the conference."
"(He) is standing for the rule and the principle of international law and the sovereignty of Ukraine against the invasion," he said.
On Friday, at the opening ceremony of the high-level event, Erdogan expressed concern over the rise of tension in the region as the Russian war on Ukraine continues.
According to Sanchez, "This is a new opportunity for EU-Turkey relations."
"We are very happy to see how Turkey is aligned with our interest of view. And I do hope, really, that the new upcoming report on Turkey is going to depict that," he added.
However, Sanchez also said that there were no major improvements in the domestic issues related to human rights and the rule of law in Turkey.
Sanchez also underlined the Council of the European Union offered a positive agenda to improve the relations. "We did a lot of steps; we reopened and resumed the high-level talk. (It) is very important."
"There was a new stance and your (Turkey's) move in our relationship that this is very good," he added.
"The only thing we continue to ask the Turkish authorities is just to solve some domestic issues or to impose some reforms to make some decisions on the field of human rights and the rule of law," he added.
"We can start the new period based on mutual trust (and) solely to send some positive signals to Brussels because the mood now is really positive," he added.
Sanchez also congratulated the Turkish foreign minister for organizing the forum, "Even after what happened in Ukraine," he said referring to the Russian war on Kyiv, "(It is) in a way the center of the world of diplomacy."
The three-day high-level event in the resort city of Antalya has brought together participants from 75 countries, including 17 heads of state, 80 government ministers, and 39 representatives of international organizations. Anadolu Agency is the forum's global communications partner.
