The United States has turned its back on Nato ally Turkey over a Christian American pastor and such treatment has annoyed and upset Ankara, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday.

“If the US is turning its back on us . . . choosing a pastor instead, sorry . . . we continue our path with decisive steps,” Erdogan told a crowd of supporters in Black Sea coastal city of Rize. “This treatment by America of its strategic partner has annoyed us, it has upset us.”

The two governments have been at odds over a wide range of topics: from diverging interests in Syria, to Turkey’s ambition to buy Russian defence systems and the case of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who is on trial in Turkey on terrorism charges. – Reuters