Turkey’s Erdoğan secretly planned Morsi’s election, brokered deal with Muslim Brotherhood’s Shater

On June 18, 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended funeral service held in Turkey for ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi who had a heart attack during a trial hearing.

Source: Nordic Monitor

By Abdullah Bozkurt

June 11 2020

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally involved himself in domestic politics in Egypt in a last-ditch effort to shore up support for embattled President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, a secret wiretap has revealed.

According to the wiretap, obtained by Nordic Monitor, Erdoğan was talking on the phone about how he planned to send aid to make Morsi look good before a possible election. He also praised the approval of the Egyptian constitution, which was backed by Morsi but disputed by the opposition over claims of fraud.

The tape, recorded on April 22, 2013 at 13:53 hours, showed Mustafa Latif Topbaş, a corrupt businessman and long-time family friend of Erdoğan, called then-Prime Minister Erdoğan to talk about developments in Egypt. Topbaş said he had met with Saudi businessman Yasin al-Qadi, at one time listed as an al-Qaeda financier by the UN and the US, and that the two had talked about what was going on in Egypt. Al-Qadi was conducting secret business deals with Topbaş, Erdoğan’s son Bilal and other associates in violation of Turkish laws, and all were under criminal investigation by the Istanbul prosecutor.

“He is going back today … he brought you Zamzam [holy water from Mecca] that I will send to your home … and he said Salam to you,” Topbaş said of his conversation with al-Qadi. Erdoğan returned al-Qadi’s greetings. Then the conversation between Topbaş and Erdoğan turned to Egypt, where the resentment of Morsi’s increasingly authoritarian rule had started to gain strength. A campaign called Tamarod was launched in April, with activists calling for Morsi’s resignation, an early presidential election and a new constitution.

“It is not Morsi but Shater who is actually running the government,” Topbaş quoted al-Qadi as saying in his conversation with Erdoğan. He was referring to Mohammed Khairat Saad el-Shater, a senior figure of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) who was disqualified from running as a candidate for the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party in the 2012 presidential election. Erdoğan said there were some problems there (among the Muslim Brotherhood leadership) and added, “I told them to avoid any resentment among themselves.” Erdoğan was apparently concerned about the internal feud between Morsi and el-Shater, both of whom had privately maintained close ties to Erdoğan, the Turkish equivalent of a Muslim Brotherhood politician.

Erdoğan recalled how he had advised Morsi and other MB leaders to do some work in Cairo to convince Egyptians to vote for them. “[The city of] Cairo is mired in filth, and I said to him [Morsi]: Look, Cairo is filthy, especially the ancient tomb cities, let’s do something like that … outrageous [scenery], there are leather shops there that smell quite bad, filth all over the place … I said I would dispatch a [Turkish] company that would work [in Cairo] until the elections, we’ll give you 100-150 [garbage] trucks that can compress trash.” He was apparently trying to prop up Morsi in anticipation of an early presidential election, which was being called for by the political opposition, clearly in violation of Egyptian laws that bar foreign interference in domestic affairs.

Erdoğan lamented, however, that the Morsi government had yet to send a minister to talk about his plans for Cairo and said he reminded Morsi about it the other night again when he talked to him on the phone. Erdoğan was very happy to see that Morsi managed to secure votes for the new constitution, according to the transcript of the conversation.

Turkish President Erdoğan’s ruling party mobilized rallies and held a funeral service for Morsi on June 18, 2019.

Referring to the Spanish company FCC, which had a contract for waste management in Cairo, Erdoğan told Morsi and his people that the Spaniards could not handle the cleanup of the city. “These Spaniards won’t clean up these places,” he had said and conveyed his thoughts to Morsi on the matter.

However, Erdoğan’s ally Morsi was ousted from power amid popular protests on July 3, 2013, backed by the Egyptian military. In a major blow to Turkey’s important ties to Egypt, a major Arab nation, Erdoğan aligned himself with the Muslim Brotherhood and refused to recognize Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his government as legitimate. He offered sanctuary for the MB leadership and turned Turkey into a regional hub for the Brotherhood’s international network.

The Turkish president has even made a habit of using the Rabia sign he borrowed from the MB to demonstrate solidarity with the Brotherhood at almost every opportunity. He has nationalized the four-finger Rabia, with each finger representing one of his “new Turkey” principles: one nation, one flag, one state and one homeland.

In August 2013 Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors after Erdoğan’s clear stand in favor of the Brotherhood. Turkey’s ambassador returned weeks later, but Egypt declined to have its envoy return to Ankara. In November 2013 Egypt declared Turkish Ambassador Hüseyin Avni Botsalı persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country because of what it described as Ankara’s continued interference in Egyptian affairs, and it scaled back its diplomatic relations with Turkey to the level of chargé d’affaires. Turkey reciprocated within hours by declaring Egyptian Ambassador Abderahman Salah El-Din persona non grata.

Al-Qadi, Topbaş, Erdoğan’s son Bilal and son-in-law Berat Albayrak were all leading suspects in an organized crime investigation pursued by prosecutors in Istanbul and were the subjects of detention warrants issued on December 25, 2013 by prosecutors. However, Erdoğan stepped in, illegally preventing the execution of the warrants by ordering the police to not follow the prosecutor’s orders. After the removal of the prosecutors and police chiefs who were involved in their investigation, Erdoğan managed to whitewash the crimes of his associates and family members.

Mustafa Latif Topbaş, chairman of the board of Birleşik Mağazalar A.Ş (BİM).

Transcript of the wiretapped conversation between then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his business associate M. Latif Topbaş:

U.S. role in post-Mubarak Egypt still unclear

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi walks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to a meeting at the Ministry of Defense July 15, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. Clinton is holding talks with Egypt's top military leaders to press for the military to work with Egypt's new Islamist leaders on a full transition to civilian rule.

Πηγή: CBSNews

By AP
July 15 2012

CAIRO - Having pressed the new Egyptian president, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday sought to mobilize what influence the United States still has with the army chief whose key role in post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt is splitting the country between those who see the military as a threat to democracy and those clinging to it as a guarantor of stability.

The United States sees it as a bit of both.

Clinton's demand to the military was simple: Work with Egypt's new Islamist leaders on a full transition to civilian rule.

But with the U.S. having already approved yet another massive delivery of military aid, it was unclear what leverage the Obama administration has as it seeks to stabilize Egypt and build a new relationship with America's once ironclad Arab ally.

Clinton's meeting with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi in Cairo came with Egypt's transformation from dictatorship to democracy in peril. Clinton and Tantawi met for more than an hour.

"They discussed the political transition and the (military council's) ongoing dialogue with President Morsi," a senior State Department official said, providing details of the private meeting on condition of anonymity. "The secretary stressed the importance of protecting the rights of all Egyptians, including women and minorities."

Tantawi, according to the official, focused on Egypt's economic needs and the two discussed U.S. aid plans.

Tantawi's council of generals is locked in a tense political standoff with the Muslim Brotherhood after curtailing the powers of its victorious President Mohammed Morsi on the eve of his inauguration last month and enforcing a court decision dissolving the Islamist-dominated parliament. Together the actions have created an atmosphere where no one is quite sure who is in control and where Egypt is headed.

Seventeen months after the street demonstrations that ousted Mubarak, the United States is left without a friend and with little influence among a host of old and new political actors who can't seem to chart a mutual path forward. Calling for compromise and consensus on Saturday after her first ever meeting with Morsi, Clinton staked out a middle ground in the dispute. Yet the immediate effect of her exhortations was nothing.

For the Obama administration, the old prism supporting Egypt's military leaders as bedrock allies shattered with Mubarak's demise. It wants to safeguard U.S. interests in the region, from counterterrorism cooperation to Arab-Israeli peace efforts, but its agenda remains on hold while the Arab world's most populous nation remains mired in turmoil. The lack of clarity over who is going to prevail from Egypt's political maneuvering is only adding to the paralysis.

Clinton, who earlier this year certified sufficient Egyptian action toward democracy for $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to go through, carried the same message to Tantawi as Morsi. Without taking a position in disputes over parliament or how to draft a new constitution, Clinton urged the long-time military chief to return the armed forces to a "purely national security role," as she termed it Saturday.

Her criticism was muted, however. Clinton commended the military for defending lives during the February 2011 revolution against the former president and for the progress Egypt made under its interim leadership, which included free and fair elections. And she contrasted the approach with how Syria's military is "murdering their own people," while recognizing that the Egyptian military authorities still needed to do more.

It was unclear if she adopted a tougher tone with Tantawi behind closed doors or what that might even yield from the generals, whose distrust of America is now almost as strong as that of the Brotherhood.

The United States is in a difficult spot, eager to be seen as a champion of democracy and human rights after three decades of close cooperation with Mubarak despite his abysmal record in advancing either. This has involved some uncomfortable changes, including occasionally harsh criticism of America's once faithful partners in the Egyptian military and words of support for Islamist parties far more skeptical of U.S. motivations for Egypt and the region.

Appearing alongside Clinton at a news conference Saturday, Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr said Morsi stressed in his meeting with the American secretary that he would respect all treaties Egypt has entered into, which includes the landmark 1979 peace accord with Israel.

According to Amr, the president spoke in favor of a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal along the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestine — a moderate Arab vision for a two-country solution that his party members have been often vague on in the past.

Clinton and Morsi also spoke about Egypt's distressing economic outlook. Clinton promised that the U.S. would make good on well over $1 billion dollars in debt relief, private investment capital and job creation funds that Washington has previously outlined.