Erdogan added, according to what was reported by the official Turkish “Anatolia” agency, on Monday, commenting on the meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Doha, on Sunday: “We said previously that a path can be started, and this was a step that was taken in order to start this path.”
Erdogan said that the handshake that took place between him and his Egyptian counterpart in Qatar, on Sunday, in the presence of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, was a first step towards further normalization of relations between the two countries. Erdogan added that other moves will follow that first step in order to normalize relations between Cairo and Ankara.
The Turkish president added that he wanted the meetings with Egypt to be at a higher level, in the context of the trend towards normalizing relations, and Erdogan stressed that the ties that existed in the past between the Turkish and Egyptian peoples are very important to us, adding: “What prevents them from being like that again? We have provided indications of this.”
Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying he made on the plane during his return flight from Qatar, where he attended the opening of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In Cairo, the official spokesman for the Egyptian presidency stated, on Monday, that Sisi shook hands with the Turkish president in Doha, where mutual emphasis was placed on “the depth of the historical ties that bind the two countries and the Egyptian and Turkish peoples, and it was also agreed that this would be the beginning of the development of bilateral relations between the two sides.” .
Egypt and Turkey had held several official rounds in order to resume relations normally, after years of tension, but those discussions have not yet reached a settlement of the points of disagreement between the two countries, regarding many files related to the Mediterranean, the Libyan crisis, the situation in Syria, and others.
