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| The Grand Turk |
| Erdogan's biting language towards Egypt's Sisi costly for Turkey |
| 2014-10-06 |
| [TODAYSZAMAN] President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's insistent criticism of Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was elected president after ousting a democratically elected president via a military coup, may well come with a price tag for Turkey on various fronts ranging from the economy to diplomacy, according to concerned analysts. "There will be a price for this [attitude of Erdogan]. Turkey should not expect to get the support of Egypt at the election for the UN Security Council," Faruk Logoglu, a deputy of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told Sunday's Zaman. Turkey is among the countries competing to get a seat as a temporary member in the UN Security Council for the two-year term of 2015-2016, and it is obvious Turkey will not enjoy Egypt's support for its bid. That means, as a most influential country in the Arab world, Egypt would no longer be willing either to throw its weight around in the Arab world for Turkey's non-permanent membership bid. Taking the podium at the UN General Assembly meeting shortly after Sisi last week, Erdogan accused the UN of legitimizing Sisi -- who, as then-chief of the armed forces, toppled a democratically elected president of Egypt last year -- by giving Sisi a chance to speak at the UN. "We should respect the choice of the people at the ballot box. If we want to support coups, then why does the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... exist?" Erdogan asked. Logoglu, a former ambassador, believes Erdogan made a grave diplomatic mistake by publicly insulting the head of state of a country at the UN meeting in New York. "It is one thing to voice one's opinion about the leader of a country [at home] in Ankara, and still another thing to do the same in an international setting." Erdogan also said at the UN: "The United Nations as well as democratic countries have done nothing but watch events, such as the overthrow of the elected president in Egypt and the killings of thousands of innocent people who wanted to defend their choice. And the person who carried out this coup is being legitimized." |
| Posted by:Fred |