Shortly before the start of the first summit of EU countries with the Arab League in Egypt, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticized Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for enforcing death sentences. „They recently executed nine young people,“ Erdogan said yesterday in a television interview.
„Authoritarian, even totalitarian system“
Turkey could not „accept“ such a thing, said Erdogan to the CNN-Türk and Kanal D channels. The government in Cairo would „naturally“ point out that it was a „judicial decision,“ Erdogan said. In Egypt, the „judiciary, elections, all that, but nonsense“. There is an „authoritarian, even totalitarian system“ there. Erdogan told Sisi he would never „talk to someone like him“.
In Egypt, nine men were executed on Wednesday for the murder of the Egyptian Attorney General in 2015. Amnesty International had vainly requested that the executions be suspended. Human rights organizations have long lamented the state repression in Egypt under Sisi, who is cracking down on Islamists and government critics.
Relations between Ankara and Cairo have been severely strained since the 2013 Egyptian military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, a close ally of Erdogan. Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood Mursis, now banned in Egypt, have since found refuge in Turkey.
