How does the Brotherhood view Turkey’s calls for rapprochement with Egypt?

The Turkish political arena is witnessing a large movement following the successive calls made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet ministers and officials to come closer to Egypt, but how do supporters of the terrorist Brotherhood organization view these calls?

The number of organization members in Turkey, is between 5 and 7,000 members of the 35,000 Egyptians who reside in Turkey, including about 3,000 who have Turkish citizenship. Their presence is concentrated in Istanbul, and their television channels have been proven, according to information obtained by Sky News Arabia..

According to the information, Ankara did not present a paper on handing over the fleeing leaders of the group who live on its territory and suspending their media platforms and their satellite channels as a priority that can be negotiated at the present time with the Egyptian government. Rather, Ankara still provides assurances to the group that it will not extradite their leaders, according to sources residing in Turkey.

Tactical maneuver

Hisham al-Najjar, a specialist in the affairs of extremist groups, said there is no fear for the Brotherhood as long as Erdogan remains in power. Whatever he does, the tactics and maneuvers seem to be retreat, but they are in fact a tactical step to avoid a particular crisis or achieve a specific interest.

Al-Najjar added, for Sky News Arabia, Erdogan’s project and general objective will remain untouched, we have a strategy for Erdoğan and the neo-Ottomans, employing the Muslim Brotherhood’s tool to gain dominance and control under the title of succession, as opposed to changing tactics in circumstances and circumstances. What is changing is the necessity of dealing with the next election, in which Erdogan is very weak before the opposition.

He pointed out that Erdogan is trying to overcome this through some renovations, especially in the files that his opponents used to attack him, including the case of the relationship with Egypt and how he caused Turkey to lose the biggest Arab country to Egypt because of his relation with the Brotherhood, in addition to his need to hit the Egyptian-Mediterranean alliance with Greece and Cyprus.

Intellectual compatibility

Amr Farouk, a researcher specializing in extremist movements, agreed with him that the Turkish political system will not move towards Egyptian rapprochement except through consensus with the Muslim Brotherhood and the international organization. On the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood leaders want this rapprochement because it will end many restrictions imposed on them from their point of view.

Farouk told Sky News Arabia that the Turkish political system is ideologically and politically compatible with the direction of the international organization. It will not seek rapprochement or negotiations with Egyptian state institutions unless there is coordination with the leaders of the group, which wants to create a margin or space that will allow it to relieve pressure on its followers inside the country and re-position the organization. The group realizes that it will not be able to revive its existence except through the so-called “Dar-Numbers” strategy. The literature of the group and its theorists to prepare new generations are affected by the intellectual methodology of the Muslim project, away from entering into conflicts with the political system.

He pointed out that the decision of Turkish rapprochement with the Egyptian state is motivated by the realization of special interests for the Jordanian political system and the Brotherhood Group. Both want to find legitimacy in the region both on the Arab and regional levels.

Test of intent

Salah Labib, a researcher on Turkish affairs, believes that the situation is still too early to test Ankara’s intentions with regard to its positions of supporting political Islamist groups. In any case, the Justice and Development Government is accustomed to a policy that receives slaps in the interim in exchange for achieving future interests.

Labib told Sky News Arabia that the strategic objectives of the Egyptian state in any rapprochement with Ankara are linked to the management of the conflict in the Middle East, and then to the Libyan crisis. Turkey’s intervention in Egypt through the  Brotherhood is a security file to be supervised by the relevant agencies.