Who will stop the Egyptian junta?

Egyptian courts have condemned to death an incredible number of so-called Muslim Brotherhood members. First, a totally biased and ridiculous trial condemned 524 people to death, while a second trial just afterward condemned 629 people to death. This could be seen as a macabre farce, if there were no human lives in question. Most of these condemnations have been pronounced in order to definitively give the Egyptian population a good example of "how opponents of the regime will be punished."

Since the coup d'état of 1954 that ousted King Farouk of Egypt and his corrupt regime, power in this country has been in the hands of the armed forces. The Egyptian Army, under the guidance of Gamal Abdel Nasser, restructured all of society, the bureaucracy, economy and foreign policy to suit the needs of the military elite. Virtually all high-ranking posts in the state apparatus were given to high-ranking officers or retired high-ranking officers. Nasser was himself a colonel, his follower Sadat a high-ranking officer, and so was former President Hosni Mubarak. The continuity of the ruling elite has not created a stable external or internal policy. Once resolutely anti-colonialist and pro-Soviet, the Egyptian elite turned into one of the staunchest allies of the U.S., especially after the Camp David agreement. Two major wars waged against Israel did not prevent the Egyptian elite in power from establishing a peaceful modus vivendi with the latter.

The only time since 1954 in which the military elite had to give up power was when now-ousted President Mohammed Morsi's won the election. The Egyptian people revolted twice, first to get rid of Mubarak, and afterward to have free elections organized. The third popular protests were against the democratically elected Egyptian government, whose international credit and support sources were severed almost completely after the elections, creating a difficult economic situation. The old elite, meaning the Egyptian Army, has taken this carefully prepared opportunity to overthrow a legitimate government and to swiftly institute a bloodthirsty dictatorship, mainly to show the population that opposing the old elite can become a deadly endeavor. In the aftermath of the coup, financial resources that were denied to the Morsi government were generously made available to General Abdel Fattah al- Sissi and his military-civilian junta. As a matter of fact, so long as the regime in Egypt was not seen as detrimental to Saudi interests, it remained acceptable.

Acceptable for whom? Can the U.S. and the EU still continue to look elsewhere and count on the magnanimity of Cairo's Mufti to stop the executions? How is it possible to accept such a farcical tragedy replacing the first-ever democratic functioning government in Egypt without formally condemning the regime and asking for the release of all political opponents? Ukraine is attracting all the attention and support of the democratic world, rightly so, in its quest for independence and democracy.Does the misfortune of Egypt stem from being located too far away from European frontiers and too close to Saudi Arabia and Israel?

The Turkish government was heavily criticized when it condemned the military coup in Egypt. Now Turkish public opinion is rightfully curious about the analyses made by the EU and the U.S. administration concerning the latest criminal moves of the regime in Egypt. Have we really been too eager to condemn the military junta in power or shall we wait further, perhaps for a thousand more death penalties before voicing some criticism again?