Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, former assistant foreign minister of Egypt, said that the positive statements between Cairo and Ankara confirm the existence of real intentions to turn the page on the differences that spanned for more than 8 years.
Bayoumi added during his participation, yesterday, Wednesday, in the “Evening” program on Al-Jazeera Mubasher, that despite the state of political estrangement between the two countries, there were no real differences between Turkey and Egypt in the Mediterranean basin, while the dispute was between Turkey on the one hand and Greece. Cyprus, the European Union and NATO on the other hand.
Bayoumi explained that Egypt was not a party to disputes with neighboring countries, and that despite the state of political estrangement with Turkey, the statements of Egyptian and Turkish officials maintained a lot of political politeness.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that there are great possibilities and opportunities for cooperation between Egypt and Turkey in a wide area, starting in the eastern Mediterranean to Libya.
Erdogan added in a television interview, last Tuesday, that it is not possible to compare the Turkish-Egyptian relations with their Turkish-Greek counterpart, stressing that there are many common denominators that unite the Turkish and Egyptian peoples.
For his part, Saeed Al-Hajj, a researcher specializing in Turkish affairs, said that there are many variables that require the existence of special relations between Turkey and Egypt, adding in the same context that Turkish statements and Ankara’s efforts to normalize relations between the two countries were remarkable.
Al-Hajj added that the Turkish statements towards Cairo were made by all Turkish officials, starting with the head of state, passing through members of the government and the intelligence service, and ending with the leaders of the Justice and Development Party.
Al-Hajj attributed the Turkish endeavor to normalize relations with Cairo to a number of considerations, the most important of which is that Turkey found itself alone in the Mediterranean region in front of many opponents, and therefore it saw in Egypt the closest and most worthy country to be a real partner in many hot files, adding that there is no Turkish opposition at home. It has reservations about the return of relations with Egypt before it was.
Al-Hajj stressed that Cairo viewed Turkey’s initiative to achieve this rapprochement after eight years of estrangement as a position worthy of a positive response, and therefore a new political page was initiated.
The researcher specialized in the Turkish file concluded that the Egyptian-Turkish relations during these past few years have gone through many different stages at all levels, and that there are new steps that will come soon to be built on in the future.