Turkey’s row with Egypt threatens trade pact

By C. J. Refsland on November 23, 2013 • ( 0 )

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Dec. 7, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My Comment: Iran has been given free reign, Russia is selling arms to Egypt, Syria is still on fire and now with the Iran deal, this will worsen. Saudi Arabia is purchasing Nuclear Weapons from Pakistan. Lebanon is preparing for war. Turkey bears watching. Prophecy is unfolding.

(France 24) The diplomatic spat that has seen each country reject the other’s ambassador stems from Turkey’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a stance based on the political situation in Ankara. The tensions threaten a successful trade pact, analysts say.

Egypt and Turkey dismissed each other’s ambassadors and downgraded their diplomatic relations on Saturday after months of tensions over the removal of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt’s foreign Ministry Spokesman Badr Abdelatty said he had asked Turkish ambassador Avni Botsali to leave the country because Turkey was “attempting to influence public opinion against Egyptian interests, supported meetings of organisations that seek to create instability in the country”.

“Although they were not explicitly named, this is clearly a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood,” FRANCE 24’s Cairo correspondent Kathryn Stapley explained.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly criticised the Egyptian military for removing Morsi last July and for the violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters in which hundreds of people died in August.

The two countries had already recalled their ambassadors for consultations on that occasion, before cancelling joint naval exercises last month.

Egypt’s ambassador to Ankara had not yet returned to his post, and Turkey has now declared him “persona non grata” in retaliation for the expulsion of its own envoy.

Erdogan: “I applaud Mr Morsi”