In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to the Egyptian president as a “military coup man”, much like those who attempted the coup in Turkey. “He overthrew the president elected by the people with the use of weapons while he was still the Minister of Defense,” Erdogan stated.
“Can we respect this act? This is in addition to his killing of thousands of his people. This man has nothing to do with democracy,” he continued.
Erdogan’s statement has caused rage on the Egyptian side.
In this context, Egypt’s ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ahmed Abou Zaid said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan insulted the Egyptian leadership while speaking to Al Jazeera, Youm-7 Newspaper reported.
“Once more, the Turkish president insulted the Egyptian leadership, which shows poor assessment on behalf of president Erdoğan, who is in a confusing situation, given the tough circumstances he is facing,” Abou Zaid commented in a Thursday statement.
According to Abu Zaid, the Turkish president failed to differentiate between the recent military coup against him, and what happened in Egypt on 30 June 2013, “which was a complete revolution in which millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding the support of the army”.
The Egyptian-Turkish relations have deteriorated since the military coup in 2013 led by al-Sisi against the first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi. Turkey didn’t recognize the military coup in Egypt and condemned the violent crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
In this context, since the attempted military coup in Turkey, the Egyptian government and media cheered and showed their content , launching a campaign criticizing the policies of President Erdogan. Moreover, despite the failure of the coup attempt in Turkey, the headlines of the Egyptian press the next morning asserted that the coup had succeeded and that Erdogan was ousted. Moreover, Egyptian Talk Show hosts criticized Turkey’s crackdown on the putschists after the failed coup attempt.
