Erdogan rules out meeting Egypt’s Sisi over death sentences for Brotherhood

Special to WorldTribune.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will not meet with Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi until Egypt lifts the death sentences of Mohammed Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Abdul Fatah Sisi.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Abdul Fatah Sisi.

“My stance on that issue is clear; in the first place, I will not meet Sisi until the decisions of death penalty for Morsi and his friends are reviewed and lifted. Our ministers may meet with their counterparts,” Erdogan said according to a Feb. 7 report by the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper.

Erdogan, a strong supporter of the Brotherhood, blasted Morsi’s ouster in 2013 and later referred to Sisi as a “tyrant.” Cairo responded by expelling the Turkish ambassador and Ankara did the same.

Following Moris’s ouster, the Muslim Brotherhood was officially branded a terrorist group and outlawed in Egypt. Sisi’s government continues to crack down on the Brotherhood and its supporters in the country.

Erdogan added that a meeting between Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Egyptian counterpart would be acceptable as “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.”