Written before the coup that overthrew the Morsi government.
Turkey’s
Leadership Watches Uneasily as Egypt’s Brotherhood Stumbles
As
Egypt’s Islamist government totters amid mounting pressure from
opposition protesters and the military, its allies in Ankara are
watching with growing unease
WSJ,
3
July, 2013
Turkey’s
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who weathered a month of
nationwide protests against his own government in June, has invested
heavily to forge a strong alliance with Egyptian President Mohammed
Morsi, born from shared strategic interests and shared roots in
political Islam. The collapse of the Islamist government in Cairo
would mark the removal a key ally for Ankara and could further
undermine Turkey’s bid to become a regional model for emerging Arab
democracies.
On
Wednesday, as the clock ticked on a military-imposed deadline for
President Morsi to restore order, Turkish officials lined up to offer
support to the embattled leader. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in
a statement that Ankara would stand by the Egyptian government and
called on all parties to respect the law and the constitution. Europe
Minister Egemen Bagis said that he hoped “no undesirable
developments would take place,” in a thinly veiled reference to a
military coup.
Analysts
said that the prospect of the fall of Egypt’s
democratically-elected Islamist government, could represent a serious
blow to Turkey’s aspirations of regional leadership.
“The
developments in Egypt are unfortunate, but along with the situation
in Syria, it appears to mark the end of whatever dreams the Turkish
government previously had of playing a leading role to a series of
friendly Islamist governments in the region,” said Soli Ozel,
professor of International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Hass
University.
Turkey’s
unease at the prospect of the collapse of the Egyptian government
stems from practical investment as well as ideological kinship.
Ankara
has since 2011 offered a host of measures to shore up Egypt’s
stuttering economy, including a $2 billion aid package. The
governments have discussed lifting visa restrictions and completed
joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean. Turkey’s Justice and
Development Party has dispatched leading officials and business
people to help President Morsi reform the country’s
secular-dominated institutions.
When
Prime Minister Erdogan visited Cairo in September 2011, he was hailed
as a political role model by the Muslim Brotherhood leadership. In a
sign of burgeoning relations, Mr. Erdogan invited President Morsi to
address his party congress in Ankara in 2012.
For
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, which emerged after
a series of Islamist parties were shuttered by military-backed
secularist governments, the prospect of a coup in Egypt also recalls
memories of a darker period in Turkish history.
Turkey’s
military, self-appointed guardians of the country’s secular
constitution, launched four coups against civilian governments since
the republic was founded in 1923, most recently against an
Islamist-dominated government in 1997.
During
the spate of anti-government demonstrations in Turkey last month, Mr.
Erdogan said that secularist enemies were looking to unseat his
government and compared himself to Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, a
popularly elected leader who was deposed in a coup and ended his
career on the military gallows in 1961.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.