Turkey has decided to appoint an ambassador to Egypt after nine years of mutual withdrawal of ambassadors and downgrading the diplomatic representation to the rank of chargé d’affaires between the two countries.
The move follows Egyptian authorities confirming that Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry would soon be visiting Istanbul to meet his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Cavusoglu said that Turkey may appoint an ambassador to Egypt as part of the normalization of relations with Cairo.
The normalization of ties between Turkey and Egypt is vital for the Eastern Mediterranean, the top Turkish diplomat said Thursday in a televised interview.
Cavusoglu also said that a reciprocal reappointment of ambassadors is possible, and the will exists on both sides to normalize ties.
The Turkish minister revealed that Shoukry would visit Istanbul this month.
“I will meet the Egyptian Foreign Minister at an iftar in Istanbul, during the current Ramadan, if there is no emergency,” said Cavusoglu in a Tuesday speech during a meeting of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party.
Despite saying that the meeting would take place soon, Cavusoglu did not specify an exact date for Shoukry’s visit.
Egypt’s relations with Turkey have been strained – with no shared ambassadors – since the 2013 ouster of Egypt’s late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The rift between the two countries then continued to widen, most notably when Turkey voiced its opposition to the 30 June Revolution of 2013 and its condemnation of Egypt’s judicial sentences against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt designated a terrorist organization in 2013.
Egypt has also slammed Turkey for harboring members and leading figures of the Muslim Brotherhood and allowing them to voice their anti-Egyptian government rhetoric on Turkish TV channels.
In May and September 2021, Egypt and Turkey held two rounds of exploratory talks at the level of deputy foreign ministers in Cairo and Ankara to discuss restoring relations between them.
