“Do Something about Egypt!”

SETA President Taha Özhan asks the international community to do something about Egypt; otherwise, he warns, the country will be dragged into a civil war.

Özhan speaking to AlJazeera on the possibility of a civil war in Egypt similar to the one in Syria, said:

“We should understand what Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other leaders including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said about the Egyptian coup d’état and what happened after the coup. Turkey suffered too much through the coups in the past and paid high prices; thousands of people were killed, hundreds of thousands were arrested, tortured… All of these took place in Turkey. So, when Turkish leaders gives reaction, they are talking from the very painful past and background.”

Özhan reminded that Erdoğan was one of the first leaders who supported the Jan. 25 revolution in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak was ousted; and today, again Turkey takes a different position from the rest of the world and stands against the coup d’état bluntly and openly.

This process may get into bloodier because Turkey is really afraid that “in a very limited time” coup regime vs. people may replace itself with certain sects of society clashing other sects of the society. Özhan warns that the coup regime may easily take Egypt into a civil war.

As for the Turkish government’s call for an emergency UN meeting for Egypt, he said that the Turkish government and Turkish leaders tried too much in the last 1.5 month with the US administration and the EU leaders and asked not to yield any legitimacy to the coup regime, but unfortunately the US administration not calling the Egyptian coup as a coup gave legitimacy and green light to the coup regime to do this massacre.

“I believe Turkish government is pushing the UN Security Council to at least provide some kind of international pressure on the Sisi regime at this moment to stop this massacre,” continued Özhan who believes it is questionable though because it did not take place in Syria. Unfortunately, the actors who did prevent what happened in Syria in the UN Security Council may play the same role for Egypt. This means more blood, chaos and more uncertainty for the future.

TURKEY OFFERS A ROAD MAP FOR EGYPT

Turkish government and leaders not only call for a UN meeting but also present a road map and it is quite clear:

1. Do something for Mohammed Morsi;
2. He should be released;
3. There should be a technocratic government and
4. Egypt should be taken into elections (both parliamentary and presidential) immediately.

According to Özhan, this is the only and solid road map that can be implemented in Egypt to stop the bloody process at this moment. “I hope and Turkish government hopes international institutions especially the EU and the UN support this idea and somehow stop this bloodiest process at this moment in Egypt,” SETA President concluded.