The Egyptian and Turkish foreign ministers announced in Cairo a resumption of relations at the level of ambassadors as soon as possible. Relations between Cairo and Ankara had deteriorated sharply ten years ago. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has announced that he is “preparing a meeting” between Turkish Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, to seal the end of a decade of quarrel between the two countries.
With our correspondent in Cairo, Alexandre Buccianti
At the center of the Cairo-Ankara dispute in 2013 was the military’s removal of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamad Morsi. Recep Tayip Erdogan had denounced ” a military coup ».
The Turkish president had made Istanbul the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in exile who opposed the Egyptian regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. Relations even bordered on the armed conflict in Libya where Cairo and Ankara supported rival factions.
Relations began to improve in 2022 and Presidents Erdogan and Sisi met in Doha on the sidelines of the World Cup.
Cairo sets two conditions for a total normalization of relations with Ankara: the neutralization of the Muslim Brotherhood and their media broadcasting from Istanbul and the amendment of an agreement on the route of economic waters between Turkey and Libya that does not take into account Egyptian waters.
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