26 February 2019•Update: 27 February 2019
By Muhammed Ali Toruntay and Baris Gundogan
GIRESUN, Turkey
European leaders attending a summit in Egypt just after a mass execution of young men there shows their “insincerity,” said Turkey’s president on Tuesday.
"How can you talk about democracy to EU member states that accepted the invitation of [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi, who executed 9 young men last week?" Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an election campaign rally in the Black Sea province of Giresun.
Erdogan said the EU both opposes and prohibits the death penalty in bloc countries, but accepted al-Sisi's invitation even though he executed 42 people since coming to power.
"The EU is not sincere," Erdogan said, adding that this is true of its dealings with Turkey and also shown by its attendance at the summit.
"Whatever they do, they will be remembered in history for their deeds," Erdogan added.
The two-day EU-Arab summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday and Monday saw heavy attendance by European officials despite Egypt’s execution of nine young men last week over the 2015 assassination of Hisham Barakat, Egypt's prosecutor-general.
Amnesty International said the men were convicted on terrorism charges after "grossly unfair trials" marred by alleged torture.
The sentences were carried out despite calls by numerous international rights groups for a stay of execution.
Earlier this month, Egyptian authorities executed another six people in two separate cases for the murder of a judge’s son and a senior police officer.
Egypt has remained beset by violence and turmoil since the army deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, in a 2013 coup.
