Turkey criticizes Egypt for blocking UN statement on coup attempt
ANKARA
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Turkey has strongly criticized Egypt for blocking an initiative at the U.N. Security Council to condemn the coup attempt and express solidarity with the democratically-elected Turkish government.“It’s only natural for those who came to power through a coup to hesitate to take a position towards the coup attempt staged against our president and our government,” Tanju Bilgiç, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement upon a question July 18.
As a temporary member of the U.N. Security Council, Egypt prevented the world’s most important security body from rejecting the coup attempt and standing with the Turkish government.
“It’s particularly meaningful for Egypt to oppose the use of the phrase ‘democratically-elected’ when describing our government on the Security Council text,” Bilgiç said.
Turkey cooled its ties with Egypt after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi toppled the country’s first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi from power in mid-2013.
