ALLIES: Turkey says it would reciprocate German threats.

Turkey’s foreign minister has accused Germany of engaging in “blackmail and threats” against Turkey and says Ankara would reciprocate those threats.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Cyprus, Mevlut Cavusoglu said as a once close friend and ally, Germany would know “that Turkey would never bow to blackmail and threats.”

Germany is calling on Turkey to release a German human rights trainer, who was arrested pending trial on suspicion of links to terror groups.

The Turkish minister accused German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel of making “ill-tempered statements” against Turkey after the country rejected an alleged request for “Turkey to interfere in the judiciary.”

Erdogan’s Turkey reminds me in one small way of ISIS — picking fights with nearly everybody around. Turkey can’t afford to be the Middle East’s next pariah state, but that’s the direction Erdogan is taking his country.