Turkish politician calls on Egypt to take steps in 'establishing democracy'

Deputy Chairman of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, Numan Kurtulmus, called on the Egyptian government Monday to take concrete steps in "establishing democracy" in the country, as Ankara and Cairo slowly work on mending ties.

The Turkish politician said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday night that Egypt should take a "decisive position on the establishment of democracy".

He added that Turkey never had a problem with the Egyptian people but rather with the 2013 military coup that led to the overthrow of Egypt's democratically-elected government.

This was on the basis that Turkey has itself experienced many coup d’états over the decades, including an attempted military putsch in 2016.

"We call on our Egyptian brothers to solve (their) internal problems through dialogue and adhere to democracy," added Kurtulmus.

Then-military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s current president, led a coalition in July 2013 to oust Mohamed Morsi from power, suspending the Egyptian constitution and later banning the Muslim Brotherhood to which the former president belonged.

Egypt and Turkey have not shared ambassadors since then. The two countries have also been at loggerheads over the conflict in Libya, which borders Egypt to the west and where Turkey maintains a military presence.

Both have held two rounds of talks this year, the last of which happened in September.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last month said that while there was still no agreement to reopen embassies, "positive steps" continued to be taken.