Egypt has accepted a Turkish offer to conduct a bilateral meeting in New York on the sidelines of the 69th session of United Nations General Assembly meetings, in a step to heal the strained bilateral relations.
“Egypt has accepted the invitation to review the bilateral relations course between both sides and to discuss regional issues,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Badr Abdel Atty Atty to al-Hayat T.V. Monday evening, adding the meeting would be on a ministerial level.
The relations between both sides were strained after the July 2013 ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests calling for the end of his regime.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had described the ouster of Morsi as a “coup:” Egypt downgraded Nov. 23, 2013 bilateral diplomatic relations when it announced that the Turkish ambassador Hussein Botsali was a persona non-grata. Turkey replied in the principle of reciprocity.
“It is impossible that such meeting would start to heal the relations with Turkey so long as it still supports Islamist groups,” said Nourhan al-Sheikh, head of the U.S. Studies Center in Economics and Political Faculty at Cairo University.
As long as Erdogan’s regime still exists, there would not be any improvement in the relation politically and strategically, she told The Cairo Post.
Relations also soured also when Turkey hosted members of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood National Alliance of Supporting Legitimacy in Istanbul for a conference in spring 2014; Egypt declared the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization Dec. 25, 2013.
On July 21, Egypt summoned the Turkish charge d’affaires Hedayet Pastor for the second time to answer for Erdogan calling Sisi a “tyrant” in an interview on CNN.
Cairo has invited Turkey to a Gaza reconstruction conference set for Oct. 12, said the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News reported Friday.
The U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State group could lead to a breakthrough in the relations of both sides, political science professor at the Cairo University Hassan Nafaa told The Cairo Post Tuesday.
