And the man from Istanbul came to visit Cairo for the first time since the revolution of January 25 and ousting of Mubarak. Turkey has been in the minds of the Egyptians for months now especially with the talk of Turkish scenario , the admiration of the Islamists with the AKP’s experience and last but not least the Turkish reaction from Mavi Marama.
Erdogan is now the hero of the Egyptian street especially we are suffering now with the absence of national hero in Egypt , for 30 years we were ruled by a man with no popularity or charisma unlike Nasser or Sadat. Call them fools ,idiots .. whatever but Erdogan is popular in the Egyptian street and it has nothing to do with the Islamists more than his position from Israel and the change in Turkey’s position under the AKP.
Again before you mock the Egyptian street or disrespect it remember that this is the street that brought down Mubarak and that is not fully represented on twitter.
Some Egyptian tweeps brought up the Kurdish issue and the on going war between the PKK and the Turkish army. The Kurdish issue is very critical and bigger than to speak about Turkey because we are speaking here about Syria , Turkey, Iran and Iraq along with ethnic issues and international political powers game using the issue whenever it wants. According to what I know the AKP government began to give the Kurds some of their rights gradually after years of marginalization and prosecution by the different Turkish governments including the leftist governments.
Egypt , the real strong Egypt we want to have in the future can help the Kurds using its soft delicate policies to put an end for this agony as well as to put an end the neocon’s plans once and for all. The Kurds are part of history as well as our Arab society and you can ask Saladin about it.
We need a strategic ally in the region that is not Israel nor the Gulf states that still can’t stomach the revolution and honestly I can’t trust Iran with the current regime there. May be because I followed the Turkish scene for long , I believe we have a good opportunity here to put the foundation for something strong in the future that would compensate the absence of Syria and Saudi Arabia “The strong Arab triangle”
Today was the second day in Erdogan’s visit to Egypt and it was a busy , really busy day for him in the big old city. The man gave 3 speeches today including a full hour in the opera house , at a press conference with prime minister Sharaf and at the League of Arab states where he was honored. Erdogan visited El Azhar and with its grand Sheikh along the Mufti of Egypt. He paid his respect and visited the Tomb of unknown soldiers and the tomb of president Mohamed Anwar El Sadat where he put wreathes of red flowers on each tomb. He was accompanied by Lt.General El Rowani. It is for sure a direct message to Israel when I look to it.
Needless to say he visited Tantawy and SCAF at the ministry of Defense HQ. Hopefully among the deals he came to market in Cairo couple of military strategic deals including arms deals. “yeah I am saying it frankly”.
After his speech in the opera house , he had a dinner with Egyptian and Turkish businessmen.
Erdogan came by the way his Turkish special forces unit to protect him , well our 777 units were busy in protecting the ousted president and the rest of his gang at Police academy. He also came with 200 businessmen with the hope to increase the Turkish investments in the country to $5 billion.
Now the Islamists in Cairo are split over Erdogan despite their hot warm with banners and T-shirts , they are shocked on how Erdogan defended the Turkish secularism in his interview with Mona El Shazly wishing that Egypt would adopt Secularism like Turkey. Now the Muslim brotherhood’s FJ party spokesperson Mahmoud Ghazlen says that Erdogan , the new Ottoman is meddling in our international issues !!
Tomorrow Erdogan will meet with presidential candidates ElBaradei and Abdel Manam ABu El Fatouh along with members of Muslim brotherhood.
A Brotherhood spokesman, Mahmoud Ghozlan, praised Erdogan as "a respectable leader who preserves the dignity of his country and who shares similar position with Israel." But he insisted Egyptians want an Islamic state.
ReplyDelete"In Turkey, when a man finds a woman in bed with another man, he can't punish her by law because it is permitted there. It means that Turkey ... violates Islamic Shariah law," he told The Associated Press.
Hi, it's me again. Thought you might wanted to check this out.
ReplyDeleteRally for love at the Egyptiam Embassy in Tel Aviv.
I believe the youth in both sides of the conflict needs to start knowing each other better.
H, Argentina
It is not only the Kurds. Erdogans foreign policy is one thing, but when it comes to freedom of press in Turkey itself there are only marginal differences to a Mubarak state. Hundreds if detained journos in Turkey, far away from being a free society.
ReplyDeleteErdogan gives a shit about Egypt, he wamts only more power in the region, there's absolutely no reason to glorify this man in any way.
You are raising a good point . Still Turkey was the biggest enemy of the Arab world: with territorial ambitions .
ReplyDeleteWhen dancing with the bear you should be careful for your feet, When dancing with the wolves should be careful for your hands , when dancing with foxes should be careful for your back .
Turkey is a Bear, wolf and a fox at the same time !
@Z
ReplyDelete"for 30 years we were ruled by a man with no popularity or charisma unlike Nasser or Sadat"
I beg to differ about Sadat's chrisma as Nasser used to refer to him as the 'donkey'!
Erdongan's #1 practical purpose, is to salvage Turkey's business relationship with Libya. The new Libyan regime will likely be predisposed against the old chums of Qaadaffi, disinclined to rehire large numbers of Turkish workers when there is a job shortage in Libya, and not much concerned about capital flows in Turkish companies. Erdogan is going to Libya to threaten and cajole. Threaten, mostly, I would think.
ReplyDeleteIf the Turks can pick up a few Egyptian assets at fire-sale prices, along the way, yippie skippy. Egypt must be full of medium-sized firms that have run through their cash funds and be unable to borrow any more. Eight months of economic disturbance with no end in sight, no effective government, and no notion of what a future government might be. At that point, it's 1)shut down and lose everything, or 2)sell for whatever you can get, to whomever has ready money. As a friend of Egypt, Turkey can move in and call it "benevolence."
Unlikely that Turkey will do anything to build Egypt up to the point where it can be a rival.
@Mustafa...well then stick to Egypt's current friends who 'liberated' you from the Bear-Wolf-Fox, continue being used and abused by the Arab's good old friends the Brits, the French and the American's and continue being tool of the so called 'civilized western' world and continue enjoying their present to 'Arab World'-ISRAEL.
ReplyDelete@ Schnellinger... "impressive" your knowledge about Turkish politics and Erdogan. Certainly there's "nothing" to glorify about him:
ReplyDelete1)The only leader in the world dared to tell off the war criminals G.W Busch and Tony Blair not allowing them to use Turkish territory to invade Iraq which resulted in the killings of hundreds of thousands innocent Arab children, women and men massacred by the American and British Army, aided by fellow "Arab Brothers" Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain being at the very forefront (as usual)
1)The only leader in the world dared to tell off the war criminals Shimon Peres, publicly in Davos exposing the crimes Israel perpetrates on the Palestinian People, tolerated and supported by pre- Arab Spring leaders and the Kings & Rulers who are interested in filling their pockets with Petro-Dollars rather than using those to unite the Arab World and support the Palestinian struggle against Israel.
3)The only leader in the in the region who dared to challenge Israel and its mentor the United Stated of America to end the inhumane blockade of Gaza - the "Warsaw Ghetto" Israel established in the heart of the Arab World.
You will see next week when when the PA will call at the UN for recognition who the Arabs friends are and who are not. The so called "western civilized world" will again show its real face demonstrating it does not give a damn about the the "terrorist Muslim world", whether these are Arabs, Turks, Pakistanis or Indonesians.
@ Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteQuote: "Unlikely that Turkey will do anything to build Egypt up to the point where it can be a rival."
You are so right Turkey and Egypt have to be extremely vigilant and know who their real friends are. The western powers US, UK and France will continue doing their best to create animosity and rivalry between the countries of Middle-East.
The "Arab Spring" turned the "western civilized world's" system of "Dividing & Ruling & Exploiting" in the Middle East and North Africa upside down but the game is not over yet the real battle for independence, getting away from the US, UK and French colonial ambitions is not over yet... The "western powers" will do their best to create animosity between not only Turkey and Egypt but also Egypt and Libya and Libya and Tunisia.
-there's still a lot of oil and blood to exploit int the region.
Erdogan, the only leader who denies the genocide on armenians should shut his mouth about war crimes of others. Those "friend" of the muslim world, that fights the Kurds (aren't that muslims also?) with with german tanks is a prick like Saddam, Ahmadineschad, Netanyahu, Mubarak, assad Quadaffi and all the other leaders.
ReplyDeleteQuote“…should shut his mouth…is a prick like….” – your criticism has been accepted however the us of language gives a clear indication of your understanding free speech and tolerance…
ReplyDeleteEven more important how comes you forgot to mention in your “enlightening” listing of “real pricks = perpetrators & war criminals" Bush & Blair and their predecessors (not to forget also the recently emerged neo-Napoleon Monsiuer Sarkozy) the self declared defenders of “western civilized word “ spreading democracy” in the Muslim world with guns and bombs indiscriminately killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Arab women, children and men, sticking their nose in the internal affairs of every single country in the Middle-East except the “Western Civilized worlds” colony in the Middle–East the “beacon of democracy– Israel”?...and what about the genocide on the native Americans, the genocide in Vietnam, the genocide in Cambodia, the genocide in Hiroshima, the genocide in Nagasaki, the genocide in Algeria, the genocide in Iraq, the genocide in Palestrina, the genocide in Afghanistan?! who is next in line as next Iran?