‘Incompetent’ Greek politicians trying to ruin ties, says Turkish deputy PM

“The unjust and provocative statements of some Greek ministers are not to the benefit of Greece,” Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Saturday.

“Turkey has taken many positive steps to develop and strengthen its relations with Greece, yet some incompetent politicians in Greece are trying to ruin Turkish-Greek ties,” the minister, who is also government spokesman, said in a series of posts on Twitter.

The Turkish official’s statements come in the wake of an exchange of terse rhetoric between the Turkish leadership and certain Greek politicians prompted by Greece’s refusal to extradite eight Turkish servicemen accused by Ankara of participating in the botched coup of 2016 and Turkey’s more recent incarceration of two Greek soldiers who accidentally crossed the country’s border while on patrol in early March.

“Seeing Turkey’s stance as a weakness is neither clever nor far-sighted,” Bozdag said.