Turkey loses Egypt

The attitude of various states to the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt by military means was ambiguous. The harshest criticism of the interim government established after the military coup, came from Turkey.

Despite the fact that the U.S. is an ally of Turkey in the region and said the Muslim Brotherhood organisation 'stole' the revolution and used its opportunities in political purposes, Ankara announced it will support the democratically elected government. At the same time, Turkey, organising action in support of the Muslim Brotherhood, has announced the interim government a product of the military coup.

After the coup, Ankara consistently stated that it only supports the democracy despite the fact that Egyptian representatives accused Turkey of meddling in the country's internal affairs and support for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Now the political tensions that arose between the two countries have reached its peak and last Saturday Cairo announced the Turkish ambassador to Egypt as being persona non grata, giving him a week to leave the country. Although most political analysts call the step taken by Egypt a mistake, generally, it was expected.

In general, if we look at the history of relations between Cairo and Ankara after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, we can see that despite the ideological closeness, the relationships between Turkey and Egypt were not on the rise. It should be noted that the statement made by Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Egypt in 2011, also caused a political scandal.

Erdogan urged Egyptians to give preference to democracy. At the same time, he said that a secular state does not imply it as being non-religious and called on to adopt a secular constitution.

The Muslim Brotherhood negatively perceived this statement and the Islamists recommended Erdogan, who is usually referred to as 'the saviour of Islam', not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

It was believed that Egypt was most affected by the reduction of diplomatic relations between the two countries to a minimum as a result of political tensions, but this view is unconvincing. If we take into account the fact that in recent years the link between Cairo and Moscow is progressing, we can assume that Turkey's place in Egypt will be taken by Russia.

With full confidence we can say that Ankara has completely lost Egypt as a result of harsh criticism policy undertaken by the present government.


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