Al Jazeera is reporting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t consider improving relations with Egypt unless former President Mohamed Morsi is freed from prison. According to the report:
April 10,2015 Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, says Egypt should free ousted president Mohamed Morsi from prison and lift death sentences against his supporters before Ankara could consider an improvement in relations with Cairo.
Ties between the two former allies have been strained since then Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi toppled elected president Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Egyptian security forces then mounted a fierce crackdown against the Brotherhood, killing hundreds of its supporters as they protested in Cairo, arresting thousands and putting Morsi and other leaders on trial. ‘Mr Morsi is a president elected by 52 percent of the votes.
They should give him his freedom,’ Erdogan was quoted by Turkish newspapers as telling reporters as he returned from an official visit to Iran.
An official from Erdogan’s office confirmed his comments. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with Turkey’s ruling AK Party, which Erdogan co-founded and which has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of Morsi’s removal, calling it an ‘unacceptable coup’ by the army.
Erdogan’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, and his support of a Saudi-led military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen in which Egyptian warships have taken part, had triggered speculation about a possible thaw in ties between Ankara and Cairo.
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The GMBDW reported in December 2014 that President Erdogan had harshly criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi after Egypt asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.
A 2011 report report authored by the GMBDW editor concluded that since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. That report also detailed Erdogan’s ideological ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood network, ties which date back to Erdogan’s affiliation in the 1970s with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi charity with known connections to extremist and terrorist groups. Last month, the GMBDW reported on that Israel has arrested dozens of members of a Hamas terror network said to be funded and directed by Hamas officials in Turkey. Earlier this week, the GMBDW discussed a report titled “Antisemitism Hits New High In Turkey” that examines the starling rise in antisemitism that has accompanied the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
