ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he told colleagues to no longer hold bilateral talks with Greece, the latest reversal after having resumed talks last year to address their differences in the Mediterranean after a five-year hiatus.
Those talks had made little progress. Erdogan said last week Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “no longer exists” for him, accusing the Greek leader of trying to block sales of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey during a visit to the United States.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO allies, have long been at odds over a host of issues such as maritime boundaries, the extent of their continental shelves, airspace, and ethnically split Cyprus.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ezgi Erkoyun; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
