Turkey welcomes Egyptians who fled coup: Ex-minister

By Cemal Asan and Ozkan Bilgin

VAN, Turkey

Egyptians forced to leave their country in the wake of a bloody military coup in 2013 have been received by Turkey with open arms, a former Egyptian government minister said Wednesday.

Amr Darrag, who served as minister of planning and international cooperation under former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (who was ousted and imprisoned in the 2013 coup), made the assertion while speaking to Anadolu Agency in Turkey’s eastern Van province.

“Turkey has stood with the Egyptian people from the beginning,” he said. “Turkey, especially President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reacted strongly to the coup [against Morsi] led by then-army chief [Abdel-Fattah] al-Sisi."

Darrag was speaking on the sidelines of an international forum held under the banner, “A strategic look at the Islamic World”.

"Since the [2013] coup, the Turks have stood with the Egyptian people and have refused to accept it," he said.

“Egyptians here [in Turkey] are exerting efforts to rebuild bilateral ties between the two countries based on our shared background,” he added.

Morsi, Egypt’s first freely-elected president and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood group, was ousted and imprisoned in the 2013 coup, which was spearheaded by al-Sisi -- who assumed the presidency himself the following year.

In the almost four years since Morsi’s ouster, the Egyptian authorities have waged a relentless crackdown on his supporters and members of the now-outlawed Brotherhood.

In his conversation with Anadolu Agency, Darrag also lamented the current situation in Egypt -- politically, economically and in terms of security.

The former minister accused al-Sisi of "betraying not only Morsi and his supporters, but all Egyptians," decrying the jailed president’s current state of incarceration.

“Morsi wasn’t allowed to speak to his attorney for three years,” Darrag said. “And his health isn’t good."

Morsi, he added, “isn’t an ordinary person -- he’s the country’s first democratically elected president. He should at least be held in humane conditions”.

Darrag went on to assert: “The international community’s silence regarding his continued imprisonment is another issue altogether.”