Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkey will not allow the death of former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi to be forgotten.
“Just as we did not allow the murder of the late Jamal Khashoggi to be forgotten, we will never allow president Mohamed Mursi’s drama to be forgotten,” Erdogan said, referring to the Saudi journalist who was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Earlier yesterday, Egypt dismissed as “baseless” and “irresponsible” Erdogan’s previous statements that Mursi didn’t die of natural causes but was killed.
Mursi, of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first democratically elected president, died on Monday after collapsing inside a Cairo courtroom.
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party has been a main backer of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many Muslim Brotherhood members fled Egypt for Turkey since 2013, when Mursi was ousted by the military, led by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
Sissi, who has been Egypt’s president since 2014, was yesterday described by Erdogan as “a cruel tyrant. He is not a democratic person. He took power by force.”
“I believe the UN — which approved of our country’s stance on Khashoggi’s murder — will surely put Mursi’s suspicious death on their agenda and bring those responsible to account,” Erdogan told foreign journalists in Istanbul.
In Mursi’s case, Erdogan vowed this week that Turkey “will do whatever is needed to put Egypt on trial in international courts.”
Egyptian state media claim Mursi died of a heart attack.
Erdogan said that even if the countries who stood by and watched when a democratically elected president was jailed and then died, “remain silent — we cannot remain silent.”


Related Story