Representatives of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), led by Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu, paid a visit to Cairo Nov. 7-9, causing a stir as the first high-level Turkish figures to travel to Egypt in the past two years. The visit was widely seen as a positive step toward mending fences between the two countries, whose ties were poisoned by the 2013 coup that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and the ensuing vitriolic reactions from Ankara.
The optimism, however, was short-lived, dashed by a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taken during his Nov. 10 phone call with US President Barack Obama on the Syrian crisis. The photo, released by the state-run Anatolia news agency, showed a sculpture in the form of a hand making the Rabia sign displayed prominently on Erdogan’s desk. The four-finger sign has become a popular gesture to show support for the Muslim Brotherhood and denounce Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup against the Islamist movement. Erdogan himself has sometimes made the gesture at his rallies.
