Cairo-Ankara ties continue to fray

Egyptian newspaper alleges Turkish government planning to topple military-led regime in Cairo.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan 370 (photo credit: Reuters)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan 370
(photo credit: Reuters)
Relations between Turkey and Egypt continue to deteriorate, with reports that Ankara is plotting with the Muslim Brotherhood to topple the Egyptian government.
According to a report in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Youm al-Sabaa, Turkey and the international Muslim Brotherhood have plans to spread strife in Egypt and topple the military-backed government.
The plan is supposedly set to begin on November 19.
The Turkish government, led by the Islamist AK Party, supports the ousted Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and has heavily criticized the new regime, causing a deterioration in relations.
The report has not been confirmed by other sources, but even if it is not true, it reflects the suspicions and hostility growing between the two countries.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thrown his support behind the Egyptian Brotherhood because he sees similarities with his own party, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote in an article published in the London- based daily Asharq al- Awsat in September.
Just as the Brotherhood is being criticized and pushed from politics today, the AK Party was once in a similar position, he said. The military with the support of the people toppled the Brotherhood, and the AK Party feels that something similar could happen to it.
“If the world accepts what happened to Morsi today, what reason do we have to believe they will not accept a military coup against us tomorrow?” wrote Cagaptay.
Last week, Egypt was angered by a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry calling for Morsi’s release.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it “represented an unacceptable interference in Egypt's internal affairs.”
Morsi has been in prison since the military overthrew him in July.