President Gül's message for Sisi not congratulatory, but 'goodwill'

Uğur Ergan ANKARA

A handout picture made available on June 8 by the Egyptian presidency shows President elect Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivering a speech after signing the handing over of power document in Cairo. AFP Photo

The message sent by Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi upon the latter’s election was not a “congratulatory” message, but should rather be assumed as “goodwill,” sources from Gül’s office have underlined.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent remarks dismissing Gül’s message to el-Sisi, while labeling such messages “meaningless” prompted the sources at Çankaya Presidential Palace to make a clarification.

Gül did not send a congratulatory message, but “primarily a message of goodwill for the well-being of the Egyptian people and in accordance with international diplomatic practices,” according to sources.
“Therefore, the prime minister’s criticism was intended for the western world,” the sources said.

Sources also recalled that Alper Bosuter, Charge D’affaires of Turkey’s Embassy in Cairo, participated in el-Sisi’s oath-taking ceremony with the approval of the Turkish government.

 “Our reverent president has sent a message to the president of Egypt, wishing for peace among the fellow people of Egypt, and for the well-being and stability of the country,” as read on the presidency’s webpage.

The Turkish government under 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 longstanding bilateral ties between two of the region’s most important countries.