Turkey accused of escalating violence in Egypt

In another sign of its common front against the Muslim Brotherhood, the Gulf Cooperation Council decided in its Dec. 19 meeting to extend full support to the Egyptian government under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and to normalize Qatar-Cairo relations. Inevitably, the focus then switched to Ankara and the question of whether now that Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has reversed course, his spiritual twin Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also make up with Cairo.

There was some hope that the Turkish government will use the March 22-23 parliamentary elections in Egypt as an opportunity to turn a new page in relations. After all, Turkey’s condition of normalizing relations was the ending of oppression and return to democracy. Parliamentary elections and the emergence of a new government would have offered Turkey a face-saving way to reverse its stance against Egypt.

While some in the government would like to improve relations with Egypt, several events have spoiled the optimistic atmosphere. One crucial development was the Istanbul meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party deputies in December 2014 and their declaration that all decisions by the "coup regime" are invalid, marking a new arena of political struggle against Egypt by the Brotherhood parliament-in-exile via Turkey.

Following the death of the Saudi king and his replacement, Ankara's government circles hoped that the new king, parallel to the Shiites toppling the government in Yemen, may give priority to the struggle with Iran instead of going after Islamists. As part of that strategy, the new king could cut the support to Sisi and remove the Brotherhood from the terror list. In that case, Sisi would be isolated and Turkey’s current position that the Egyptian government is illegitimate would gain traction. These expectations have been voiced by figures close to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian opposition.