Turkey analyzes regional impacts of Egypt coup

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

An image grab taken from Egyptian state TV shows Egyptian Defence Minister Abdelfatah al-Sissi delivering a statement as opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei (L), the heads of the Coptic Church and Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning and other officials sit next to him on July 3, 2013 during the unveiling of a roadmap for Egypt's political future, with state media reporting that the plan sets a tight schedule for new elections. AFP Photo

Turkey has begun to evaluate the potential impacts of the Egyptian army’s overthrow of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi on the region, with an emphasis on how the development could affect the ongoing internal fight in neighboring Syria.

“The Egyptian army’s intervention will have serious impacts on the region and on the course of the Arab Spring. But it’s very hard to estimate how the impact will show itself,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News in an initial evaluation. “Syria will surely be affected as well, but it’s really hard to say how things will change in the field form now on.”

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Önhon spent the night at the ministry yesterday and were in constant touch with Turkish Ambassador to Cairo Hüseyin Avni Botsalı.

Botsalı’s mandate as the ambassador ended on June 30, but the government asked him to stay a few days more to observe the developments in the country before he was scheduled to move to his new posting, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the meantime, President Abdullah Gül is set to receive Turkey’s new ambassador to Egypt, Ahmet Yıldız, in Istanbul this afternoon.

Initial evaluations show that the Western world’s support to ongoing democratization efforts in some Arab countries could decrease following the Egyptian army’s intervention. The first incident that caused question marks in the Western world was the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya last year. Developments in Tunisia and the army’s intervention in Egypt could weaken the international community’s support for the opposition’s war in Syria.

Turkey was among the countries which heavily supported the Morsi government and had established strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Morsi attended the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) congress last year and praised the support he received from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.

Egyptian embassy postpones National Day reception In the meantime, the Egyptian Embassy to Ankara announced the postponement of a National Day reception slated for July 8 due to the ongoing events in the country.