Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey and Egypt are historical friends that enjoy brotherly relations long decades ago.
In a press conference with his Bahraini counterpart Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad bin Muhammad Al Khalifa, Davutoglu stressed necessity of boosting relations between the two countries and that “Turkey will continue to have close relations with Egyptians, "Egypt is Turkey's historical friend and will continue to be so."
Davutoglu added that the Egyptian government decided expelling our ambassador and we acted in the same way. He said that they don’t want to intervene within Egyptian local issues neither do they support any group. He also added that they will continue their strong relations with Egyptian people without intervening within any country’s affairs, saying they have great respect to freedom of expression
Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on Saturday reducing the diplomatic representation with Turkey to the charge d’affaires level. Consequently, Egyptian ambassador to Ankara abdel Rahman Salah Eddin was summoned back to Cairo. Turkish ambassador to Cairo Hussein Avni was asked to leave the country, being considered as persona non-grata.
Turkey granted Egyptian ambassador until 29 November to leave the country.
Regarding Turkish-Bahraini relations, Davutoglu expressed Turkey’s interest in developing relations with Bahrain on all aspects, especially it witness positive turn at all fields of cooperation.
Bahraini FM referred to, “Strong historical bilateral relations, which were developed over the age at all fields of politics, economy, history and tourism. He also considered that Turkey is a pivotal country and that they seek developing relations at all fields.
Al-Khalifa also expressed appreciation toward Turkish stances supporting Bahrain in previous incidents, “Turkey comes on top of countries that assured sovereignty of Bahrain.”
He also expressed optimism toward wider scopes for strategic relations between Manama and Ankara and initiating a strategic dialogue among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Turkey.
Regarding the Iranian issue, Bahraini FM said, “Relations of Bahrain and GCC countries in general are not based on changing the regional alliances according to temporary visions. They do not place Iran and Israel in one rank.”
He also expressed hope that the nuclear agreement succeed in “ getting danger of mass destruction weapons spread away and ending fears of these weapons’ evils either in Iran or any other country.”
