Turkey slams Egyptian spox's remarks targeting Erdogan

ANKARA

Turkey on Wednesday rejected a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson targeting the country and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We reject the statement made by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt on September 24, 2019, which is full of lies and slander targeting our country and president," said Turkey’s Foreign Ministry.

"It's tragicomic that those who came to power in a coup criticize the democracy in Turkey," the statement said.

The ministry said Turkey "as a responsible member of the international community calls for an end to the widespread and systematic violations of human rights in Egypt and for meeting the legitimate demands of the Egyptian people for democracy, justice, equality, freedom, accountability and prosperity."

The ministry pointed out that the inhumane practices in Egyptian prisons and judicial processes manipulated by political decisions were well known to the international community.

"These practices are essentially subject to criticism from various international organizations," it said.

Instead of taking into account the bona fide calls and suggestions in a positive way, the ministry said the Egyptian administration "prefers to take aggressive actions as it has done before, in order to cover up the human rights violations and to ignore the basic demands of the Egyptian people."

According to the statement, Egypt's effort to target Turkey, which has a leading role and experience in the fight against terrorism, is a reflection of its aggressive attitude.

"Turkey has been fighting against terror groups such as the PKK/YPG, al-Qaeda and Daesh as well as FETO for years,” it said, referring to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization.

“Turkey's fight against terrorism, which poses a cross-border threat, contributes to the territorial integrity of its neighbors, particularly Syria, and also to the protection of the security and peace of the region," it added.

Pointing to the Egyptian spokesperson's statement, the ministry said "it is not surprising" for those who came to power by a coup to support the coup plotters.

"Essentially, this statement clearly reflects the Egyptian government's character based on cruelty and injustice."

The ministry said Turkey would continue its principled attitude towards peace and prosperity of the brotherly people of Egypt and would continue expressing its views on the return to democracy and establishment of rights and freedoms in the country.