×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Monday
08
Dec 2025
weather symbol
Athens 13°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> Politics

Erdogan disrupts NATO unity amid Putin’s threat to European security

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan negotiates political gains with NATO's expansion

Newsroom May 27 11:14

Internal NATO relations have become increasingly strained following Turkey’s apparent refusal to allow Sweden and Finland into the fold, with fellow NATO member Greece becoming the latest European nation on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s chopping block.

Erdogan took a swing at Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis this week when he accused him of attempting to block a U.S. arms sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara.

“There’s no longer anyone called Mitsotakis in my book,” he told reporters following a Monday cabinet meeting.

The Turkish president also said he would refuse to meet his Greek counterpart for a previously planned summit later this year.

Erdogan’s comments came a week after the Greek prime minister met with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill and urged them to consider NATO’s security when making “defense procurement decisions concerning the eastern Mediterranean.”

“We are always open to dialogue. But there is only one framework we can use to resolve our differences – international law and the unwritten principle of good neighborly relations,” Mitsotakis told U.S. lawmakers. “The last thing that NATO needs at a time when our focus is on helping Ukraine defeat Russia’s aggression is another source of instability on NATO’s southeastern flank.”

See Also:

Turkey launches military incursion into Northern Syria

The Greek prime minister did not mention Erdogan or neighboring Ankara, but his comments alluded to a long-standing spat with Turkey over alleged airspace violations.

>Related articles

Meeting between Minister Theodorikakos and Greek-American businessman John Catsimatidis

Mytilineos: The European bureaucracy has reached the point of being unaccountable to anyone

Paramount disrupts Netflix–Warner bros mega deal with a $108.4 billion offer

Turkey and Greece, both of whom are NATO members, have shared a complex relationship for more than a century. But Athens and Ankara’s latest tiff amid Russia’s aggression in Europe could spell trouble for the very military alliance that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to see dismantled.

“All nations act in their own self-interest, all the time,” Michael Ryan, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO, told Fox News. “[Erdogan] defines the Turkish self-interests and he defines how they pursue it. And in this case, he views Turkey as a rising regional power, and he is pushing hard in every direction to certain Turkish prerogatives.”

Read more: Fox News

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#cyprus#diplomacy#eu#europe#Finland#greece#Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis#invasion#Joe Biden#NATO#politics#russia#Russian President Vladimir Putin#security#Stability#sweden#turkey#Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan#ukraine#usa#war#world
> More Politics

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Meeting between Minister Theodorikakos and Greek-American businessman John Catsimatidis

December 8, 2025

Stranger Things: Creators share TV settings for the best viewing experience

December 8, 2025

Trump announced an executive order for single AI application approval

December 8, 2025

Mytilineos: The European bureaucracy has reached the point of being unaccountable to anyone

December 8, 2025

Unprecedented violence in Crete: Farmers assault police officers — Suspects identified and charged with criminal organization

December 8, 2025

Paramount disrupts Netflix–Warner bros mega deal with a $108.4 billion offer

December 8, 2025

Photos: Lily-Rose Depp looks unrecognizable on the set of her new movie

December 8, 2025

Zelensky from London: Unity between Europe, Ukraine and the US important for peace negotiations

December 8, 2025
All News

> World

Trump announced an executive order for single AI application approval

The aim is to avoid having different regulatory frameworks in each US state

December 8, 2025

Paramount disrupts Netflix–Warner bros mega deal with a $108.4 billion offer

December 8, 2025

Zelensky from London: Unity between Europe, Ukraine and the US important for peace negotiations

December 8, 2025

Powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake in northern Japan – Tsunami warning issued

December 8, 2025

President Trump expresses doubts about Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros.

December 8, 2025
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2025 Πρώτο Θέμα