Foreign Ministry rejects Turkey's statements about developments in Egypt

Saturday 13-08-2016 06:52 PM

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry - Archive

CAIRO, Aug 13 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt rejected on Saturday statements made by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, saying that Ankara is ready to improve bilateral relations with Cairo, in case internal developments in Egypt are consistent with Turkey's views.

Cavusoglu made the statements to Turkish news agency Andalou on Thursday.

The Turkish minister said that "Egypt is facing a threat to its security, and unfortunately it is witnessing a major economic crisis and in case the states stopped their support, the country will collapse in one week".

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Turkey's statements were "unacceptable" as improvement of relations with Turkey is not reliant on Egypt's adoption of the former's views.

Shoukry also criticised Cavusoglu's comments about Egypt's economic and security situation.

Relations between Egypt and Turkey largely deteriorated following the military ouster of former president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, after mass protests against his rule. Turkey was a strong ally of Mursi's regime.

Reuters reported last month that Egypt blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the unrest in Turkey and calling to "respect the democratically elected government of Turkey," after a  faction within the Turkish armed forces attempted to carry out a coup against the Turkish government.

Egypt's ministry of foreign affairs however denied the reports, saying Egypt had only proposed a minor amendment to the Security Council's statement.

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