Representatives of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), led by Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu, paid a visit to Cairo Nov. 7-9, causing a stir as the first high-level Turkish figures to travel to Egypt in the past two years. The visit was widely seen as a positive step toward mending fences between the two countries, whose ties were poisoned by the 2013 coup that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and the ensuing vitriolic reactions from Ankara.
The optimism, however, was short-lived, dashed by a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taken during his Nov. 10 phone call with US President Barack Obama on the Syrian crisis. The photo, released by the state-run Anatolia news agency, showed a sculpture in the form of a hand making the Rabia sign displayed prominently on Erdogan’s desk. The four-finger sign has become a popular gesture to show support for the Muslim Brotherhood and denounce Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the coup against the Islamist movement. Erdogan himself has sometimes made the gesture at his rallies.
Following the July 3, 2013, coup, Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors, downgrading diplomatic ties to the level of charge d’affaires. The political and diplomatic bickering gradually intensified, also hitting the economic realm. In April, Egypt refused to renew a 2012 deal under which ferry services operated between Turkey’s Iskenderun port and Egypt’s Port Said, providing a lifeline for Turkish exporters to the Gulf after the wars in Iraq and Syria blocked existing trade routes. The loss of the Egyptian route added to the already serious troubles of Turkish exporters.
The TOBB delegation traveled to Cairo at a time of fledgling hopes that Egypt’s parliamentary elections and an ensuing new government could serve as an opportunity for Ankara to backpedal on its hard-line attitude and open a new page in bilateral ties. The first phase of the elections was held Oct. 17-28, with the second scheduled for Nov. 21-Dec. 2. Additionally, the Vienna process to resolve the Syrian crisis, led by the United States and Russia, had just brought Turkey and Egypt around the same table.
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