Loves me. Loves me not.
Erdogan turns on the charm, tells us he loves us: Turkey wants to ramp up its cooperation with Egypt “on a win-win basis” as Ankara looks to dial back tensions with Cairo and other countries in the region, including Greece, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber yesterday. “We have serious potential for cooperation with Egypt in a wide spectrum of areas from the eastern Mediterranean to Libya,” he said, adding that he “loved” the Egyptian people.
BACKGROUND: Egypt and Turkey held direct talks for the first time in years last month, and although there were no immediate signs of a breakthrough, Turkey has invited an Egyptian delegation to Ankara to continue negotiations at some point in the future. This came after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu declared in April “a new era with Egypt,” and offered to negotiate a maritime pact with Egypt and reduce tensions in the EastMed.