Egyptian MPs demand asylum for alleged Turkey coup mastermind

Egyptian members of parliament have ramped up their efforts to undermine Turkey's rulers by demanding political asylum for the alleged mastermind behind the failed coup attempt.

MP Emad Mahrous has called on the government to grant US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen asylum in Egypt.

"[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is giving shelter to hundreds of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organisation and members of other bloody militant Islamist groups which attack Egypt day and night," Mahrous said.

"This was a moderate Muslim country that has become an Islamist dictatorship at the hands of Erdogan and his Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated political party."

He added that Gulen should seek asylum in Egypt in the same way the Shah of Iran left the US for Egypt in the aftermath of the Islamist Revolution in 1979.

Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based arch-foe of Erdogan, is accused of "masterminding" the failed coup through his movement, a claim he strongly denies.

Also this week, parliamentarian Mustafa Bakri gathered 336 signatures from other members of parliament calling for a resolution recognising the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

	Erdogan blasted Sisi this week, calling him a "putschist" [YouTube]

"The UN and other bodies have taken legal action ensuring the international community recognition of this crime," the draft said.

A vote in the German parliament in May that recognised the killings from 1915 as genocide sparked angry responses from Erdogan.

He said the accusation was being used as "blackmail" against Ankara and he accused German parliamentarians of Turkish origin of backing "terrorism".

Egyptian-Turkish relations have been tense since Islamist Mohammad Morsi was ousted by then army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013.

Erdogan is a main backer of Morsi and has denounced the move as a "coup," angering the Egyptian regime.

Several Egyptian Brotherhood leaders are in exile in Turkey, having fled a bloody crackdown against Islamists following Morsi's overthrow.

Erdogan blasted Sisi this week, calling him a "putschist" that has killed thousands of his own people.