Erdogan: release Morsi and Egypt-Turkey relations will improve

The president of Turkey laid out his geopolitical views for the Middle East on Sunday night, in an interview with Saudi Arabia's television channel, Rotana.

Erdogan made statements on his country's relations with a number of countries, including Syria, Iraq and the future with Egypt.

"The process to normalise relations between Turkey and Egypt can be started if the imprisoned leaders of Egypt's
democratically elected government, -including President Morsi- are released,'' said Erdogan.

The president repeated that Egypt's current military government had been installed by a coup and was therefore an undemocratic administration.

A normalisation in trade relations would therefore be unethical, despite it being in the best interests of both countries, he said.

Erdogan disagreed with any comparison between the Gulen-supporting rebels in his country and the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt.

"In Egypt, the Defence Minister toppled the President and made bogus elections to take over the seat. This is not the case in Turkey,'' he said.

He also added that he had a clear mandate from the people as hundreds of thousands of his supporters had taken to the streets to protest against the military coup.

In Syria, Erdogan said he would require the Assad administration to step down before any meaningful peace could take hold and that the Islamic world should co-operate more on peace in the country.