Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised his country’s president, Abdullah Gul, in front of EU ambassadors in Turkey.
The criticism came during a meeting between Erdogan and EU ambassadors over dinner, when Erdogan criticised Gul’s congratulations for Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the leader of the recent coup in Egypt, upon his assumption of the post of the presidency. Jordan’ s As-Sabeel newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying: “I must be honest, this congratulations to me holds no meaning, because it is not possible to offer congratulations to a coup leader.”
Erdogan said that Egypt still plays a pivotal role in the future of the Middle East, expressing his wishes for Egypt and its people to enjoy actual democracy and stressing that his government’s attitude towards Egypt stems from this point.
He added that Egypt’s legitimate president, Mohamad Morsi, who came to power after winning a popular election with 54 per cent of the vote, was deliberately isolated to allow the army to bring about a military coup against a democratically elected government.
Erdogan stressed that the Turkish position has not changed on the issue of Egypt, and he criticised those countries that are avoiding calling what happened in Egypt a coup and accepting what he called the recent non-transparent sham of an election.