Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he no longer recognised the existence of the leader of neighbouring Greece and would not meet him at a planned summit this year, threatening to deepen a crisis within Nato over Turkey’s opposition to the alliance’s expansion.
Erdoğan is blocking bids by Sweden and Finland to join Nato in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has accused the Nordic states of maintaining ties with Kurdish militants whom he says pose a security risk to Turkey. On Monday, he turned his ire on Nato member Greece, saying it too harboured “terrorists”.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister, met with US president Joe Biden last week and addressed a joint session of Congress. He urged US legislators, when deciding on defence procurement in the eastern Mediterranean, to consider Turkey’s violations of its airspace.