out conditions including the release of former
Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi before his
country will normalise ties with Egypt.
He also criticized the 2013 coup in Egypt
describing it as unacceptable for an elected
president to be imprisoned and sentenced
together with his supporters to death.
“The current Egyptian government came as a
result of a military coup which happened against
legitimacy in Egypt … The situation in Egypt
should be rectified and democracy should be
open to everyone,” he said during an interview
with a Saudi Arabian television and quoted by
the portal Middle East Monitor.
Erdogan also called for the release of former
President Morsi’s supporters which is inclusive
of the conditions before normalising bilateral
relations.
He recalled the strong bonds between the two
countries in the past while stating that the
circumstances surrounding the coup in Egypt
was different from that of Turkey because
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who was the
defence minister under Morsi took over after the
coup.
Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to death in June
2015, with a hundred co-defendants for mass
escape from prison and attacks against the
police during the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni
Mubarak from power.
Before this sentence, he has already been
convicted in four trials including life
imprisonment for espionage.
Turkey itself suffered a failed coup in July
causing the arrest of thousands of security
officials. Erdogan has accused a U.S.-based
Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind
the coup, but, Gulen denies the accusation.
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