Egypt is a major power in the Middle East. It is the natural leader of the Arab world. "Not every Arab country may look at Egypt as their leader, but if you look at the Arab world, the first country that comes to your mind, to everybody’s mind, is Egypt," said a leading opposition figure in Turkey.
“Egypt has been up to its responsibility as a major regional power at all times, including in the most recent case; the Egypt-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel,” said Faruk Loğoğlu, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), in an interview with the Middle East News Agency (MENA).
“We have a complete confidence in the ability and the bright future of Egypt, under the current administration of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi who has been the choice of the Egyptian people." he added.
Loğoğlu pointed out that the Turkish-Egyptian relations have always been good. "But, now we’re experiencing the lowest point in our relations".
He said that the Turkish prime minister should have retracted his statements against the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar. These statements really hurt the Egyptian people that is why he should have apologized for saying them,” he said, noting that he met with the Grand Imam who is a very respectable man and a learned scholar.
Loğoğlu and Osman Korukütük, the CHP Istanbul deputy, had led a delegation from the Kemalist party and conducted a series of meetings with government officials and politicians in Cairo on September 10, 2013.
“The Turkish people don’t have any bad feelings about the Egyptian people, and we don’t have any bad feelings about the Egyptian government either. These bad feelings are only in the mind of (President Recep Tayyib Erdoğan) and (Prime Minister Ahmet) Davutoğlu. Nowadays, however, they don’t talk about this, because I think President Sisi and the Egyptian government have established their credibility and respect in the region and the international community. We have to leave the affairs of Egypt to the Egyptian people.”
“I think (former Egyptian president) Mohamed Morsi’s primary failure was to deliver on the economy. He couldn’t do much in that area. Had he respected the constitution and in the same time taken certain steps, he would have improved the standards of living of the people. It could have been perhaps different. However, I believe that in the long run that the attempt to completely suppress and prohibit the Muslim Brotherhood as a political force is probably wrong. We know from experience here. If you completely tried to turn it off, it would not go away. Somehow, I hope that in the coming months or years there might appear a possibility for that way of thinking.”
“We’re a staunch secular party. We think religion has no place in politics and politics has no place in religion, but taking stringent measures doesn’t solve the problems in the long run, but I am sure the people of Egypt will find a way. I have no doubt that Turkey and Egypt will restore their relations once again.”
The CHP supports the idea of the best of relations between Turkey and Egypt. We have great respect, love and affection for the people of Egypt, and we believe that the people of Egypt, and Egypt as a country, will have a bright future and will be a major, responsible and stable country in this turbulent region, he added.
Asked about recent reports that the Turkish government is supporting terrorist groups like the so-called ISIL (Daaesh) Loğoğlu said, “This is unfortunately one of the worst legacies of this government. The policies of our foreign minister on Syria and Iraq are largely responsible for the expansion of the conflict in Syria and Iraq. It is the responsibility of Davutoğlu, as much as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian opposition, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and all other Iraqi officials.
In one sense, the Syria policy of Erdoğan and Davutoğlu was based on a very clear single idea, which is still continuing today, that “anybody who fights against Bashar al-Assad is on my side, we will help him, even the ISIL of course”. There was a time when the ISIL, or their likes, were fighting against Bashar al-Assad. Later, that changed. The ISIL, the Nusra Front and others are fighting each other, are fighting the regime and are fighting the Syrian opposition.
So, Syria has become a fertile field for radical terrorist organizations: more than 2,000 groups are operating there. This has already harmed Turkey in many ways, one in terms of actual terror attacks like the Reyhanli bombing, committed by al-Nusra Front, in addition to more than a million Syrian refugees, and now thousands of refugees from Iraq. It has also harmed Turkey economically, from Mardin to Mersin. The tourism, restaurants and hotels have experienced problems. It has also hurt Turkey internationally. Turkey is today viewed as a country that is giving active support – arms, money and militants – to terrorist organizations.
Even though the Turkish government keeps denying this, we know for example that President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Davutoğlu cannot call ISIL and the Nusra Front “terrorist organizations”.
Asked about recent reports that there was an unofficial office based in Istanbul that helps provide new fighters and recruits to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq, Loğoğlu replied, “This is very true, in the sense that do I have a document in my hand to prove that? No, I don’t, but there are constant photographs, addresses and names in the Turkish press and the international media to prove these allegations. There were even pro-ISIL demonstrations in Istanbul, raising ISIL flags. This is taking place in a country where peaceful demonstrators demonstrate and they get killed for it, in Eskisehir, in Ankara, in Gezi Park in Istanbul, while pro-ISIL demonstrators have a free hand to demonstrate. This shows the sectarian policy of this government and that is why they supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, and that why they supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Born in Ankara in 1941, Loğoğlu is a retired ambassador. He has a degree in political science from the U.S. University of Brandeis, and later obtained a PhD from the U.S. University of Princeton. A fluent speaker of English and French, Loğoğlu served as his country’s ambassador to the United States, Denmark and Azerbaijan.
Source: MENA