Egypt's UN mission responds to Erdogan's remarks

CAIRO - 25 September 2019: The Egyptian mission at the United Nations in New York, on instructions from Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, sent a strong response to the statement made by Turkish President Erdogan on September 24, 2019, at the opening of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly related to the death of Mohamed Morsi.

The response, which was issued in the form of an official letter addressed to the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, expresses the delegation of the Arab Republic of Egypt’s utmost surprise and revelation toward the determination of Erdogan to continue his claims and his issuance of false statements.

These statements in the apparent claim to defend the values of justice, but in its essence they are are just feelings of hatred and resentment towards Egypt and its people, who only hold respect and appreciation toward Turkish people.

The mission stressed on the irony that these allegations come from someone such as Erdogan, in light of his sponsorship of terrorism in the region, as well as his regime's flagrant violations against the friendly Turkish people as he tries to make them hostage to false freedom and alleged justice. The mission added that the Turkish president's recent statements against Egypt are only a desperate attempt to divert the attention away from the deterioration of his regime, and the successive losses he suffers both at the party level and on the Turkish internal scene and the international arena.

The mission provided facts that are also evidence of the absurdity of Erdogan's talk about justice, and what goes into estimates about the crimes that have been committed and still committed by the Turkish president and his regime, which include:

1. The presence of more than 75,000 political and military detainees in Turkey between civilians and the military, which justifies the great expansion of the regime in Turkey in the establishment of dozens of new prisons recently.

2 - dozens of deaths among prisoners as a result of suspicious circumstances or under torture or illness due to poor conditions in Turkish prisons.

3. The dismissal of more than 130,000 employees arbitrarily from their government positions.
4. Confiscation of more than 3000 universities, schools and educational institutions with the dismissal of thousands of academics.

5 - Imprisonment of hundreds of journalists and media workers, where Turkey has become a country where most journalists are imprisoned worldwide according to several international reports.

6. Tens of thousands of Turkish citizens have fled abroad as a result of the crackdowns in the country.

The mission added Erdogan’s suspicious role in supporting and sponsoring terrorism in the region, they pointed out that the malicious practices of the Turkish president have been manifested in many ways, as it is evident to everyone, by embracing the terrorist Brotherhood and its elements in Turkey, and providing political support and media platforms to its terrorist elements in order to continue promoting their subversive ideas in Egypt and the entire region.

Furthermore, sponsoring terrorism in Syria, resulting in a prolonged conflict that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of the Syrian people, and deliberately targeting the Kurds in particular with repression, murder and genocide, which falls within the ranks of crimes against humanity that require accountability and do not fall over time, in addition to facilitating the passage of terrorist elements and foreign fighters to penetrate the countries of the region, Europe, Africa and Asia to destabilize them and promote extremist thoughts, and the use of terrorism in an attempt to achieve its purposes and dreams of false expansion, influence and control beyond its borders.

It also cannot be overlooked that it continues to support terrorist and extremist groups and armed militias in Libya, by providing all political and logistical support of weapons and equipment, all in a systematic policy that involves continued support for terrorist elements that it spread to other parts of the region and the world, including a number of regions of the African continent and others.

The mission added that Egypt has always condemned the Turkish president's continuance, for his collusion with countries that support terrorism and extremist ideology, his interference in the internal affairs of a number of countries in the region with the aim of threatening their internal stability and desperate quest for domination and influence.

The mission concluded that such a course, which Erdogan continues to follow, is only an inability to hide the feelings of hatred towards Egypt and its continued progress, and his determination to continue his attempts to spread devastation and destruction in the region. The mission frowned upon how the Turkish president denounces himself as a defender of freedom and justice, while in fact, he is only defending his extremist ideology and his likes of terrorists.

The mission stressed that if the Turkish president wants real justice, then the international community should hold Erdogan accountable for all his crimes, especially supporting terrorism, supplying weapons, harboring terrorists and providing safe haven to them in violation of Security Council resolutions, as well as crimes against his people and against the Kurds.