Turkiye in bid to heal ties with Egypt, Syria

Ankara, Cairo could reappoint envoys, restore full diplomatic ties within months: Foreign minister

Turkiye and Egypt could reappoint ambassadors and restore full diplomatic ties between the two countries within months, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.

His announcement came just days after Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed plans to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad when “conditions are right” in a bid to rebuild relations. Ankara has recently attempted to mend bridges with several nations in the region, and the warming of bonds with Egypt follows years of tensions since the 2013 ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a military coup. On Sunday, Erdogan said he had recently spoken with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for around 45 minutes on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar, where last week the two leaders shook hands on a fresh start to restoring bilateral links.

The deputy foreign ministers of both countries are expected to meet soon to begin the process of opening new avenues for cooperation.

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Unluhisarcikli, Ankara director of the German Marshall Fund of the US, told Arab News that Turkiye’s normalization moves with Egypt mirrored similar efforts with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region to break its isolation.

He said: “There are also financial incentives in the form of swap deals with and investments coming from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “Turkiye’s normalization with Egypt would alter the balance between Turkiye and Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean in favor of the former,” he added.

Ankara and Cairo have a loaded agenda of issues to resolve including their competing policies toward Libya, not least the recent hydrocarbon exploration deal between the Libyan Government of National Unity and Turkiye, and the presence of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and dissident Egyptian journalists in Turkiye.

Nigar Goksel, Turkey project director at the international Crisis Group, told Arab News: “Turning the page with El-Sisi appears to be a pragmatic approach, taking into account a few dimensions.

“One is the recognition that the Muslim Brotherhood will not be able to make a comeback in the near future.”