President Gül sends congratulatory message to Egypt’s Sisi

ANKARA

A ceremony to decorate 14 foreign academics known with their studies on Turkey with order of merit was held at the Presidency in Ankara on June 11. Abudurexiti Yakufu was among the recipients of the order presented by President Gül

Turkish President Abdullah Gül has congratulated Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on his election as president, in a first step of official communication between the two countries since the former general Sisi ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Morsi, last year.

Presidential sources stressed that Gül’s message was “customary” and did not mean he denied the fact that Sisi first came to power after a military coup,

The Turkish government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been extremely vocal in denouncing the coup in Egypt. Cairo and Ankara declared each other’s ambassadors persona non grata last fall and mutually reduced their level of representation, damaging long standing bilateral ties between two of the region’s most important countries.

Gül’s position, however, has been slightly different from that of Erdoğan, indirectly urging the government to seek paths of communication with the new administration in Egypt.