After deporting Abdulhafiz: Turkish-Brotherhood game cards re-arranged
Wednesday 06/February/2019 - 09:22 PM
Sarah Rashad
The case of the deportation of the Egyptian terrorist, Mohamed Abdel Hafiz
Hussein from Turkey on January 18, 2019 and sentencing him to death in the
assassination case of late public prosecutor Hisham Barakat, came to renew the
differences between members of the Brotherhood in Turkey as this incident in
particular condemns the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and accuses them of
negligence and abandonment of its members.
The beginning of the fall and exposing the truth of the Brotherhood
The beginning was the day of the deportation itself, as the investigation
revealed that Abdel Hafiz had arrived in Turkey on a forged visa after he had
obtained the promises and guarantees of the Brotherhood to provide a safe
residence.
According to the available information, the deported brothers were detained at
Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, prompting him to communicate with the
leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, led by Mahmoud Hussein, and the legal
advisor, Mukhtar al-Ashri, to find a way out.
However, what happened was a disappointment to the terrorist’s hopes in his
terrorist group. The group ignored all contacts until the Turkish authorities
had to deport him being chained to his seat on the plane bound for Cairo.
Against the background of this incident, Egyptian fugitives in Turkey renewed
accusations against the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that they are pursuing
selective policies to protect the Egyptians residing in Turkey.
Mahmoud Hatem was one of the Brotherhood's attackers on the background of the
deportation case, posting his testimony on the role of the Brotherhood towards
its fugitives in Turkey.
Hatem said that the leaders of the
group, especially Mahmoud Hussein and Saber Abul-Fotouh, intended to ignore the
legalization of the situation of the fleeing Egyptians in Turkey if they were
not affiliated with the group.
Hatem cited the fact that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had once asked
the Brotherhood to prepare a list of the names of the Egyptians residing in
Turkey for political reasons to grant them Turkish nationality. However, the
leaders of the group chose certain names, according to the narrator, from
within the community.
Hatem said that the fugitives in Turkey, who are not members of the Muslim
Brotherhood, have been feeling uneasy for some time, after they used the
Brotherhood leadership more than once and did not find the required response.
Brotherhood is a losing bet
In line with this, there came a post by the MB-biased channel’s TV host Tariq
Kassem who said through his personal account on Facebook that the numbers are
"huge," as he put it, of the Egyptian fugitives in Istanbul who are
now preparing to leave Turkey and that they held their lives and future on a
losing bet called the Brotherhood.
Kassem, who fled to Turkey four years ago from Egypt to work for the Mekameleen
channel, accused the group's leaders of selling the "false illusion"
to young people while practice proved otherwise.
The Turkish position on the Brotherhood differences
From the moment the deportation of a convicted Egyptian from Turkey was
announced and the interpretations began to revolve around whether there was a
shift in the Turkish position on the Muslim Brotherhood, or that the incident
is no more than a routine security measure at Ataturk airport?
Apparently, the Turkish position on supporting the Muslim Brotherhood is
impossible to be changed in light of the remarks made by the Turkish president
on every occasion he mentions the Brotherhood.
The question here is: "Has Turkey changed its attitude towards the
Brotherhood, and have the group's differences with their non-member allies
influenced Turkish support?"
Nurhan el-Sheikh, professor of political science at Cairo University, told The
Reference that the Turkish support for the Brotherhood is conditional, despite
the Turkish constant emphasis on Ankara's absolute support for the group, so
Turkey will turn away from the Muslim Brotherhood, sensing the absence of
benefit from them.
This is supported by the assumption that Turkey's support for the group may be
affected by the divisions that have broken down the ranks of those fleeing
Egypt, and have escalated to the surface, and they have become dubious in
Ankara's political game.
After the deportation of Abdulhafiz: Turkish pragmatism
Talk about Turkish pragmatism and the transformation of policies in general may
be highlighted in the official speech of Turkey. During a television interview,
the Turkish president said, "Even with your enemy, you are not severing
ties ... you may need them."
The Erdogan formula, in which the Turkish president summarized the parameters
of his pragmatic rule of politics, appeared strongly in the statements of
Turkish Foreign Minister Mouloud Gawishğlu, who earlier announced Turkey's
reluctance to think of dealing with Syria.
It is noteworthy that Turkey since the beginning of the Syrian crisis is one of
the most prominent countries hostile to the Damascus government which is
representative of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
All these transformations, which Ankara calls "flexibility," are
linked to a decline in Turkish politics towards its Arab environment, which
observers expected following the Turkish president's victory in a new
presidential term.
"We may see a qualitative shift in Turkish policy toward the Arab world,
with Ankara focusing on reforming what has corrupted it in its relations with
Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian regime in particular," said Kurdish writer
Hoshenk Ose.
He relied on his analysis on the negative political and economic consequences
of Turkey's policies towards the Arab countries and its support for the
Islamists since 2011, considering that these motives are likely to increase the
possibility that Turkey will reconsider its policies even if it is slow.
It is noteworthy that the voices of Turkish politicians are escalating from
time to time, to condemn the policies of the Turkish president, demanding to
break what it considers the international isolation of Turkey, following the
ambitions of the political president.
Turkey has recently resorted to reconsidering its relations with Russia and
Iran, despite their well-known support for the Syrian state, which could open
the door to changes in the Turkish position on the Brotherhood in its entirety.