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Turkish President Erdogan Slams Egyptian Counterpart Over Executions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed his counterpart Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi over Egypt’s recent execution of nine people, saying that he would “never talk to someone like [Sisi].” Erdogan, who has been widely criticized for a crackdown on civil society in the wake of a failed coup in 2016, added that, “of course we are going to be told that it is a decision of the judiciary, but there [in Egypt], justice, elections, all that, are [nonsense]. There is an authoritarian system, even totalitarian.” Relations between the two nations have been strained since Sisi in 2013 ousted Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mohamed Morsi from the office he now occupies. For his part, Erdogan is a staunch supporter of Islamists, including the Hamas terror group, and many members of the Egyptian Brotherhood sought refuge in Turkey following Sisi’s rise to power. Meanwhile, Cairo has come under fire for its own heavy-handed treatment of political opponents including the mass jailing of Brotherhood leaders, whose release Erdogan called for. The Turkish president also lashed out at the West, which he claims “roll[ed] out the red carpet” for Sisi and turned a blind eye to his alleged human rights violations.