Turkey accused of escalating violence in Egypt
Egyptians suspect Turkey of allowing Muslim Brotherhood affiliates to provoke violence in their country.
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.
