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How Morsi matters in Turkish politics

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is convinced that the forces that toppled former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi would have toppled him as well, had he not stood his ground against them.
Pro-Islamist demonstrators hold a banner that reads "Coup leaders can't trial Mursi" during a protest in support former President Mohamed Mursi at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, May 17, 2015. An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for former president Mohamed Mursi and 106 supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood in connection with a mass jail break in 2011. Mursi and his fellow defendants, including top Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, were convicted for killing and kidnapp

There is no doubt that the death sentence passed by an Egyptian court on former President Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 other defendants is “nothing but a charade,” as characterized by various human rights organizations and countries. As often is the case in dictatorships, the courts of general-turned-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — who grabbed power in a July 2013 military coup — are designed not to serve justice but rather to protect the regime by cracking down on opponents. That is why this death sentence, along with all other gross human rights violations by the Sisi regime (such as mass murder of peaceful protesters, political imprisonment and torture), should be condemned by the entire democratic world.

The boldest reaction to the death sentence for Morsi came from none other than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a rally in Istanbul on May 16, the day the Morsi verdict was announced, Erdogan slammed not just the Sisi regime in Egypt but also the West, which he saw as complicit.

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