Turkey has condemned the life sentence issued to former Egyptian
President Mohammed Morsi just two days after Prime Minister Binali
Yıldırım said there could be “no permanent enmities between countries
encircling the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.”
“We
condemn and express our concerns over the life sentence issued for
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president who has
been imprisoned since 2013. We are of the belief that this verdict will
not contribute to Egypt’s comfort and stability,” the Foreign Ministry
said in a written statement on June 19.
A court in Cairo handed
another life sentence to Morsi on June 18 on charges of espionage and
leaking state secrets. Morsi, leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood,
had already been sentenced in three other cases, including a death
penalty sentence for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising against
former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a life sentence for spying
on behalf of Palestinian group Hamas.
The Ankara-Cairo
relationship was seriously hit by the military coup staged by Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013, as Turkey strongly reacted
to the ousting of Morsi with strongly-worded statements from President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time.
The
ties have yet to normalize between the two countries, although the
Turkish government has expressed its intention to mend the relationship
with Egypt. “Israel, Syria, Russia, Egypt… There can’t be any permanent
enmities between these countries encircling the Black Sea
and the Mediterranean,” Yıldırım said on June 17. “Any attempt against
the will of the people is a coup. We don’t accept it. This is our
sincere view.
However this shouldn’t prevent commercial
relations. Economic and social relations can develop. It’s for the good
of both countries.”
