Turkiye’s Erdogan on first Egypt visit in decade with Gaza in focus

CAIRO (AFP): Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made his first visit to Egypt since 2012 on Wednesday to meet President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, taking a big step toward rebuilding ties between the regional powers.

Erdogan has said discussions would focus on Israel’s Gaza offensive. The leaders, whose relations frayed over Egypt’s 2013 military coup and its fallout for the Muslim Brotherhood, are set to hold a press conference later.

The visit is the Turkish president’s first to Egypt since 2012. But relations have thawed since 2021, when a Turkish delegation visited Egypt to discuss normalization.

By last July, Cairo and Ankara had appointed ambassadors to each other’s capitals for the first time in a decade.

In November 2022, Erdogan and El-Sisi shook hands in Qatar in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning for their relations.

The two leaders have since met in several other countries, including Saudi Arabia in November and at the G20 summit in India in September.

Despite the long freeze in relations, trade between the two continued. According to Egyptian central bank figures, Turkiye is Egypt’s fifth largest trade partner.

Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said an agreement had been finalized to provide drones to Egypt.

While the two regional powers have often been at odds — including supporting rival governments in Libya — their interests are aligned on two major conflicts: Sudan and Gaza.

Erdogan said his meetings in Egypt, as well as the United Arab Emirates, would “look at what more can be done for our brothers in Gaza.”

“As Turkiye, we continue to make every effort to stop the bloodshed,” he told a news conference.

Erdogan has emerged as one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Israel for its bombardment and ground offensive in the Palestinian territory, which have killed at least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders before the October 7 attacks. The NATO member asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the unprecedented attack.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Ankara in November recalled its ambassador to Israel, and has maintained intermittent communication with Hamas leadership, who see Turkiye as a potential ally in ceasefire negotiations.

Egypt and Qatar are currently mediating a potential new agreement between the warring parties with US support.