Egypt formally responded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s accusations of deliberate negligence to former Egyptian Islamist President Mohamed Morsi’s health before the latter’s death, through a statement by Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. 

Erdogan made his remarks while addressing the UN General Assembly, to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, “Egypt and its people have only the highest respect for the Turkish people, however, Erdogan’s continuous statements on the circumstances of Morsi’s death are ‘baseless’.”

Through the statement, Spokesperson of Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ahmed Hafez expressed his surprise to Erdogan’s determination to continue his false claims saying, “pointing out that Iit is ironic that these allegations come from someone like the Turkish president , ”who sponsors terrorism in the region, and has a gross human rights abuse record against the friendly Turkish people.”

The ministry’s statement referred to “the suspicious role of Erdogan” in supporting and sponsoring terrorism in the region.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Turkey of harbouring members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, “providing a safe haven for them to plot against Egypt, and the region.”

It also accused the Turkish president of continuing to sponsor terrorism in Syria,  resulting in a prolonged conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of Syrians, and deliberately targeted the Kurds with repression, murder and genocide. The statement added that these crimes fall within the ranks of crimes against humanity that require accountability and do not fall over time.

Egypt also accused Erdogan of facilitating the passage of terrorists and foreign fighters to penetrate the countries of the region, Europe, Africa, and Asia for the sake promoting extremist ideology.

“It is undeniable that Erdogan continues to support terrorist, 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 and spread to other parts of the region and the world, including a number of regions of the African continent and others,” the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement said.

Hafez added that Egypt has always condemned the Turkish president’s continued complicity with countries that support terrorism and extremist ideology, in addition to interfering in the internal affairs of a number of countries in the region to threaten their internal stability and seek to dominate and influence them.

“Such a course, which Erdogan continues to follow, is nothing but an inability to conceal the feelings of hatred toward Egypt and its continued progress, beside his determination to continue his attempts to spread devastation and destruction in the region,” Hafez added through the ministry’s statement.

He also said that the Turkish president’s recent statements are just a “desperate attempt” to dismiss the deterioration of his regime and the successive losses he is suffering both at the party level, on the Turkish internal scene, and the international arena.

Hafez tackled six main points to showcase Turkey’s crackdown on dissidents and every aspect of the Turkish society.

First, he referred to 75,000 political detainees in Turkey, both civilian and military, which justify the great expansion of the regime in the establishment of dozens of new prisons recently.

Hafez then discussed the fact that dozens of deaths among prisoners are a result of suspicious circumstances or under torture or illness due to poor conditions in Turkish prisons.

He also mentioned the arbitrary dismissal of more than 130,000 employees from their government jobs. In addition to

the confiscation of more than 3000 universities, schools, and educational institutions with the dismissal of thousands of academics.

Finally, Hafez referred to Erdogan’s regime’s imprisonment to hundreds of journalists and media practitioners, noting that Turkey has become the world’s top in journalist’ imprisonment according to several international reports. He also mentioned that thousands of Turkish citizens had to flee abroad as a result of the crackdowns in the country.