Turkey has withdrawn from dialogue with Greece, the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed on Wednesday, a few days after saying that the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “no longer exists” for him.
Erdogan accused Mitsotakis of sabotaging efforts to resolve long-running disputes and of trying to block deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey during a recent visit to the US. Greece considers Turkey’s plans to upgrade its fighter jet fleet as a threat to security in the eastern Mediterranean. This dispute is not the only point of contention between the two countries, which also have conflicting claims over air space, the island of Cyprus, and the status of several islands in the Aegean Sea, and other issues.
In an address to lawmakers from his ruling party, Erdogan announced that Turkey had left a High-Level Strategic Council agreement, which was sealed in 2010, and has served as a bilateral cooperation platform.
“By canceling the agreement, we will no longer hold bilateral talks with them (Greeks),” the Turkish leader said.