Turkey wants to establish a parliamentary friendship with Egypt
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party suggested the formation of a parliamentary friendship group with Egypt, in the context of Ankara’s efforts to normalize relations with Cairo.
The Anadolu state news agency stated that, Bulent Turan, the parliamentary leader of Erdogan’s AKP party, said: Today we will present a motion to the parliament speaker’s office to establish a friendship group between Turkey and Egypt.
In 2013, relations between the two countries have been stressed since Egypt’s army ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Mursi, who was an ally of Erdogan.
In fact, Cairo classified the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organization. Whereas, Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party backed Mursi’s brief Egyptian government. Moreover, a lot of Brotherhood members and their supporters have escaped to Turkey since the prohibition of the group’s activities in Egypt.
Turkey still opposes the declaration of Egypt
Otherwise, Turkey stated, last month, that it had continued diplomatic contacts with Egypt. Nevertheless, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared on Tuesday that Turkey kept opposed the declaration of Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood is terrorists.
Cavusoglu informed Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk: We are against declaring the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. It is a political movement that is trying to come to power through election.
Last week, the Foreign Minister announced that Turkey would send a delegation to Egypt in first May after a Cairo’s invitation, and that he would gather his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry later.
