President Erdoğan to visit Egypt after 10 years

It has been reported that President Tayyip Erdoğan will visit Egypt to meet his counterpart Abdulfettah Sisi. According to Bloomberg, Erdoğan will travel to Egypt on February 14th. This visit will mark his first visit to Egypt since 2013.

Unnamed officials have stated that Erdoğan and Sisi are expected to discuss humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and steps to end the conflict. The agenda will also include goals to enhance cooperation between Ankara and Cairo in the Eastern Mediterranean.

What had happened?

In July 2013, Mohammed Morsi (of the Muslim Brotherhood), who had came to power through elections in Egypt, was ousted in a coup and imprisoned. Sisi, the military leader of the coup, had taken his place, and Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador from Egypt, severing ties with the country.

Erdoğan has repeatedly targeted Sisi and in 2019, he refused to attend the official dinner at the UN General Assembly to avoid being at the same table as Sisi. Erdoğan justified this stance by saying, “I will not sit at the same table and legitimize coup plotters.”

However, Erdoğan shook hands with Sisi, with whom he had been ‘enemies’ for years, at the end of 2022.