Hindering the MB organization in Turkey has prompted it to have a distance from the ruling AKP. This is a sign that the “honeymoon” between Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish President and the organization has ended after the recent rapprochement between Cairo and Ankara.
The Turkish opposition Felicity Party announced a few days ago that its president, Tamal Karamullahoglu, had received a delegation of MB members in Ankara. The party pointed out that “the delegation includes the group’s official in Turkey, Hammam Ali Yusuf, and leaders in the organization, including Medhat Al-Haddad and Mahmoud Hussain”.
Egyptian-Turkish Rapprochement
The Brotherhood’s meeting with the opposition party comes at a time when official relations between Ankara and Cairo are witnessing attempts for rapprochement, after relations were cut off following the overthrow of the rule of the late President Mohamed Morsi and the MB in 2013, as Turkey opened its doors to MB members and dissidents fleeing Egypt .
Informed sources revealed earlier that leaders of the MB held meetings in the British capital, London.
The sources indicated that those meetings focused on the issue of Turkish-Egyptian rapprochement and its implications on the leaders of the group residing on Turkish territory. in addition to preparing for the repercussions of any possible reconciliation and the resulting handover of some of the members of the Egyptian group escaping to the security authorities in Cairo.
The sources also pointed out that these meetings lead to several perceptions about the crisis of MB residents in Turkey, including those convicted of death or life sentences. MB leaders believe that they have to find other safe havens outside Turkey, in countries that do not have exchange criminals agreements with Egypt. Regarding those convicted with sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years, the MB will coordinate with the Turkish authorities to grant them temporary residency status.
Secret alliance ..
“A wing of the group is planning a confrontation, in anticipation of the betrayal of the Turkish authorities and Erdogan, through an alliance with the Turkish Felicity Party which is affiliated with the group. We are cooperate together to bring down Erdogan and his party or stop what the Turkish president is resorting to decisions may reach deportation from the country,” Asim Abdul Majid, one of the group’s leader points out.
“The Turkish president is almost exploding in anger at the actions of the Brotherhood leaders in Turkey. specifically Mahmoud Hussein’s group, the former general secretary of the group, that has strong ties with the Felicity Party, which has proven its alliance with the opposition parties to topple Erdogan in the recent elections,” Abdul Majid mentioned earlier Via Facebook.
“The MB allied with the Felicity Party, which led to the fall of the candidates of the ruling AKP headed by Erdogan during the municipal elections, which took place in 2019 in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya. The party ran with candidates whose chances of winning were zero, in order to fragment the Islamists ’votes, and clear the arena for opposition candidates to prevail and sweep the elections,” Abdul Majid explains.
The Felicity Party was formed after the Virtue Party was dissolved by a decision issued by the Turkish Constitution Court on June 22, 2002, and two parties emerged, one of them the AKP led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the second, the Happiness Party, which represented the traditional wing.
During the four years in which Numan Kurtulmus assumed the leadership of the party, the opposition party succeeded in raising its popularity from 1% to 3.5% and then to 5%, and the majority of votes removed it from the AKP.
The renewal of the pledge of allegiance ..
The MB was quick to justify the reasons for its leaders ’meeting with the Felicity Party that “the reasons for the visit relate to some community institutions”. In an attempt to “salvage what can be saved” from the relations with the Turkish regime that apparently reached a dead end.
Ibrahim Munir, the group’s acting general leader, issued a statement under the title “Thanks and Appreciation,” stressing the “full fulfillment” of Erdogan, renewing commitment to duties, respecting all laws, regulations and customs, and not prejudice to Turkey’s stability. in an attempet to erase the meeting with the Felicity party.
Ibrahim Mounir, in a statement published by the group’s “Freedom and Justice” website, referred to the visit on April 21, saying that “it was undertaken by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Egyptian Associations. Which includes representatives of several Egyptian political forces – including the MB – who were received by Turkey as political refugees, with the aim of meeting with some Turkish community institutions, to clarify the conditions and requirements of the Egyptian refugees.”
In turn, Turkish political sources revealed to the media, that “the Brotherhood’s bet on the Felicity Party is a loser. Because the latter has no political or popular influence or weight inside Turkey. She also pointed out that “the Brotherhood’s meeting with the Felicity Party has no effect or benefit, rather it is an ideological convergence.”
The source pointed out that “there has been coordination between the Felicity Party for many years with the MB, which is what happened before the ruling AKP”. It also confirmed that Felicity wants to send a message of support to the MB, but cooperation and coordination between them will not have any impact on the course of negotiations between the Turkish and Egyptian side.
Turkey recently began work to rebuild relations with Egypt and the Arab Gulf states, in addition to improve relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight country in the Gulf, which entered into a crisis after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi the Saudi journalist, in Istanbul in 2018.
Ibrahim Kalin the Turkish presidential spokesperson, announced that a Turkish diplomatic mission will visit Egypt in early May. He also pointed out that there are contacts between the heads of the intelligence services and the foreign ministers of the two countries.
