Egypt’s critical visit to Turkey after 10 years

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Samih Shukri.

Çavuşoğlu received Shukri, the Egyptian prime minister to visit Turkey since 2013, at the Adana airport.

Shukri and Çavuşoğlu are expected to attend the ceremony to be held at the Mersin international port for the Egyptian aid ship, following the closed-door meeting.

In a statement yesterday, the Foreign Ministry announced that Şükrü would come to Turkey to show solidarity and convey condolences.

Shukri, who visited Damascus in the morning, met with Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

ERDOĞAN-SISI MEETING WAS TALKED FOR DAYS

Normalization steps in Turkey-Egypt relations had been on the agenda in recent months. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Qatar, where he went to attend the opening of the FIFA World Cup in November, shook hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, whom he had earlier told: “I will not sit in the same table and legitimize the coup plotters”. This handshake was the highest level meeting between the two countries after 9 years.

After the earthquakes, Sisi called Erdogan on the phone and conveyed his condolences.

Turkey had been highly supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, which was overthrown by the Sisi administration in a 2013 coup, and relations broke down after the coup. (AGENCIES)