×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Wednesday
21
Jan 2026
weather symbol
Athens 12°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

Putin – Witkoff meeting on Thursday

Rain in Attica: How the severe weather affecting the country will evolve in the coming hours

Von der Leyen in Davos: the signing of a mammoth trade agreement with India is just around the corner

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

Japan reopens the world’s largest nuclear power plant

January 21, 2026

Putin – Witkoff meeting on Thursday

January 21, 2026

Rain in Attica: How the severe weather affecting the country will evolve in the coming hours

January 21, 2026

Von der Leyen in Davos: the signing of a mammoth trade agreement with India is just around the corner

January 21, 2026

Case of the large cannabis plantation in Amari, Rethymno solved – four people arrested

January 21, 2026

CoE: The Ministry of Education failed to introduce the lesson of Ethics for students exempted from Religious Education

January 21, 2026

Bear spotted wandering the streets of Anarrachi in Kozani – watch the video

January 21, 2026

Europe one step closer to the “trade bazooka” against the U.S. over Greenland – France and Germany converge, Meloni’s role crucial

January 21, 2026
All News

> World

Japan reopens the world’s largest nuclear power plant

This restart involves, in a first phase, only one of the plant's seven reactors, which is the largest in the world in terms of total production capacity.

January 21, 2026

Putin – Witkoff meeting on Thursday

January 21, 2026

Europe one step closer to the “trade bazooka” against the U.S. over Greenland – France and Germany converge, Meloni’s role crucial

January 21, 2026

Trump overshadows Davos before even arriving and prepares to push to acquire Greenland

January 21, 2026

New massacre of civilians in Niger: At least 31 dead in jihadist attack

January 21, 2026
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2026 Πρώτο Θέμα