Turkey keeps seeking international reaction against military coup in Egypt

ANKARA

In this 2012 file photo, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, (R), and Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi, salute the congress of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, Turkey. AP photo

Turkey condemned today the Egyptian army’s firing on people during the dawn prayer in Cairo, killing dozens of people who demonstrated against last week’s military coup that unseated President Mohamed Morsi. Ankara described the incident as a “massacre,” while Turkish officials called on the U.N. to show a reaction to those behind the coup.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, on social network site Twitter, wrote, “I strongly curse and condemn the massacre in Egypt, which took place during the early morning prayer.”

He asked whether military coup supporters still had a clear conscience about all those incidents.

In a bid seeking joint international reaction against the military coup in Egypt, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held 12 phone conversations with his international counterparts, including EU term president Lithuania, Qatar, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Finland, Brazil, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Morocco and Sweden and planned to have more conversations during the evening, a Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News.

“I strongly condemn the massacre during the morning prayers on behalf of the fundamental values of humanity that we have defended,” Davutoğlu wrote in a message on Twitter.

“Despite provocations, we expect from our Egyptian brothers to protect democracy and free will in dignity,” he added. The foreign minister urged the start of a political normalization process respecting the people’s will.

“Egypt is the hope for the rising demand for democracy in the Middle East and Turkey will always be in solidarity with the Egyptian people,” he said.

EU Minister Egemen Bağış said that the remarks of Ban Ki-moon over the incidents in Egypt were not enough. “Although I believe his discourse should be clearer, more consistent, more convincing and more conscientious, U.N. Security Council must get into action about Egypt as immediately as possible,” he noted.

Bağış also criticized the members of the U.N. Security Council of being irrelevant to others due to their own interests and the EU due to its stance on Egypt.

The chairman of the Turkish Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Ayhan Sefer Üstün, also voiced concern. “Organizations such as U.N. should immediately gather and show a serious and democratic reaction to those behind the coup” underlining that the Western world was also as responsible as those behind the coup in Egypt.

In a written statement, the Foreign Ministry also condemned the killing of more than 50 Egyptians. “The attack meant to violate not only freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful demonstrations but also a provocation which embitter the violence,” the ministry said.