Turkey, Egypt in fresh quarrel after Erdoğan’s remarks

ANKARA

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan arrives at a welcoming ceremony during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin. REUTERS Photo / Presidential Palace Press Office / Handout

The foreign ministries of Turkey and Egypt have traded a fresh round of accusatory statements, with the latter condemning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s latest remarks and his “flagrant intervention” in Egypt’s internal affairs.

“In unconformity with diplomatic customs, the Dec. 2, 2014 dated statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry making unacceptable claims about our country and our president, which is undoubtedly dictated by the military junta leadership, is null and void for us,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement, also issued on Dec. 2.

Erdoğan’s latest salvoes against the Egyptian regime came during a joint press conference on Dec. 1 with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, in which they discussed the situation in Syria.

Erdoğan said that all the over the world “putschists” come to power with high voter turnouts. “We have previously witnessed this in Turkey. We also saw the high voter [turnout] during elections in Egypt, and we saw who participated in the elections,” he said.

The Egyptian response described such statements as “ignorant” and “reckless.” “Despite Egypt’s disregard for such reckless comments, Erdoğan’s efforts to comment on Egypt entails ignorance, recklessness, lack of understanding of the realities, and the determination to live in illusions, tied with prioritizing his personal stance and narrow ideology,” the statement read.

In response, Ankara underlined that it will continue to calls on the Egyptian authorities to end human rights violations and make progress toward democratization. Accusing the Egyptian authorities of being “unable to comprehend Turkey’s recommendations” and of having a “guilty conscience,” the statement also slammed the recent Egyptian court ruling that acquitted former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak had been tried over his alleged responsibility for the killing of hundreds of demonstrators in 2012.