Egyptian Foreign Ministry welcomed Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's remarks on opening a new phase of relations between Turkey and Egypt.
"We welcome all efforts on improving the relations between Egypt and Turkey. However, the starting point of smoothing the ties would be recognizing the official institutions which were established after June 2013." Egypt's foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a written statement released on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a televised interview with TRT Haber that there is no obstacle in the way of better commercial and economic ties with Egypt and Turkey is ready to enter a new phase.
"There is no obstacle in terms of commerce. Maybe there will be a ground in the future for normalization. Relations could even start at the ministerial level. We are ready for it,"・Yıldırım said, adding that Turkey has no reservations about it.
Despite signaling a will for better relations, Yıldırım reiterated that Turkey's stance on Egypt is loud and clear. "There was a coup against democracy and [then President Mohammed] Morsi was taken from administration," Yıldırım said, adding that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also stressed that Turkey does not accept it.
"We are in the same region as Egypt. We cannot cut off all [relations] even if we wanted to. We have a geographical tie and proximity. Therefore we lay emphasis on how the regime was changed there and the unjust punishments on Morsi and his team,"Yıldırım asserted.
Turkish-Egyptian relations deteriorated after Egypt's first democratically elected president, Morsi, was ousted in July 2013, as well as the human rights violations that ensued. Erdoğan has long supported Morsi and his political party the Muslim Brotherhood and has continued since they faced a brutal crackdown, at the cost of souring relations with Egypt.
The coup regime of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has cracked down on journalists, academics and supporters of democracy who have been detained and held in military facilities, many of whom have died while in police custody as a result of mistreatment.
