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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that he would no longer meet with Greek leaders over the recent clashes over islands and airspace in the Aegean Sea.
“We will no longer hold bilateral meetings with them,” the president said in a speech to his parliamentary group in Ankara.
“We had an agreement of the high strategic council with Greece, but I informed the foreign minister yesterday that we no longer stand by this agreement,” Erdogan added.
The 2010 agreement between Turkey and Greece guaranteed regular high-level meetings to develop co-operation between the two countries.
Today, referring to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but without mentioning his name, Erdogan said: “He goes to the US and makes comments against us in front of Congress. “It ends here.”
Turkey has intensified its criticism of Greece since Mitsotakis said last month in Washington that flights over Greek islands from Turkey were an “open act of aggression.”
Mitsotakis added that these interventions violate Greek territorial rights, worsening ties between the two embarrassing NATO allies.
Turkish media interpreted the Greek prime minister’s speech as a call not to give Turkey the long-requested F-16 jets.
Mitsotakis said this week that he would not engage in personal “ping-pong” retorts with Erdogan.
“Turkey is what is threatening us,” the Greek told reporters in Brussels, adding that Ankara “is wasting the opportunity to improve ties.”
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