A recent announcement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he was ok with ministerial-level meetings with Egypt is an attempt to resolve Turkey’s regional political and energy problems, the Jerusalem Post said Monday.
“I will not meet Sisi until the decisions of a death penalty for Morsi and his friends are reviewed and lifted. Our ministers may meet with their counterparts,” Erdogan told reporters, according to a Friday report by the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News. He was referring to Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi, a strong Ankara ally who was ousted by Sisi in 2013, a development that Turkey insists on labeling as a military coup.
“Turkey and Egypt are two peoples, two countries which are from the same culture and believe in the same standards of judgments. Of course, we shouldn’t break away,” he said.
Mending ties with Cairo “constitutes a crucial step for the resolution of Turkey’s frozen conflicts in the region, namely Turkish-Israeli relations and the Cyprus issue,” Selin Nasi, a columnist for the Turkish-Jewish weekly Salom, told the Jerusalem Post.
Egypt, Greece and Cyprus were in talks last year to demarcate boundaries for their common waters and, therefore, regulate claims to natural gas discoveries at sea. The talks excluding Turkey were seen by observers as a challenge to Ankara which has political disagreements with the three countries.
Turkish-Israeli relations also soured after Israel killed 10 Turks in 2010 who were boarding a boat convoy to the Gaza Strip.
“Therefore, reconciliation with Egypt is likely to contribute to regional security and boost energy cooperation at the same time,” she said.
According to the newspaper, Turkey might also be seeking to restore ties with Israel and Egypt to make up for the deterioration of relations with Russia after Ankara downed a Russian fighter jet near its borders with Syria in November.
