2024-02-14 18:17:00
Turkey’s president makes first trip to Egypt in more than 10 years to talk about Gaza
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is greeted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at Cairo Airport, Egypt, on February 14, 2024. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS)
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made his first visit to Egypt since 2012 this Wednesday.
Live media broadcasts showed Erdogan in Cairo, disembarking from his plane with the first lady and being greeted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Erdogan must discuss the situation in Gaza – including a possible ceasefire and the delivery of aid – with Sisi, according to a spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency.
Breakdown in Türkiye-Egypt relations: Diplomatic relations between the Mediterranean’s two main Muslim countries hit a low point after Egypt’s now-president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a military coup to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s first democratically elected government.
Erdogan, whose conservative religious government had close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, was outraged when they were overthrown in 2014 and called Sisi an “illegitimate tyrant.”
As Turkey continued to support the Brotherhood in Egypt and throughout the region, the relationship continued to deteriorate. Egypt was also part of the years-long blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while Turkey supported Doha. To Ankara’s frustration, in 2020 Egypt signed a maritime agreement with Greece, Turkey’s main rival, in the eastern Mediterranean.
Thawing diplomatic tensions: Only in 2021, after the end of the diplomatic crisis, did relations between Ankara and Cairo begin to improve. Despite tense political relations, trade has more than doubled since the Egypt-Turkey free trade agreement came into effect in 2007.
Murat Aslan, a professor of international politics at Hasan Kalyoncu University, says Erdogan’s trip is a turning point in relations between the two countries.
“The region needs cooperation, not confrontation,” he told CNN.
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