ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish and Turkish Cypriot senior officials began talks on Tuesday on retaliatory measures against the European Union`s membership talks with Cyprus. Ministers from Turkey`s cabinet and the Turkish Cypriot government, recognised only by Ankara, gathered at a state-owned mansion in the centre of the Turkish capital. The EU formally launched its expansion process in Brussels on Monday. Talks with the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot administration were to begin in earnest on Tuesday. "This wrong attitude of the EU deals a heavy blow to peace talks and changes the parameters of a solution on the island," Turkish State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel told reporters before the Ankara meeting. Turkey complains that the EU has taken sides in the Cyprus dispute by opening talks with the Greek Cypriots while leaving Turkey out of the enlargement process. Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem warned that the EU talks with the Greek Cypriots signalled a hazardous increase in tension in the eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus has been divided between rival Turkish and Greek Cypriot zones since Turkey invaded the north of the island in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens.