No steps taken yet to restore ties with Egypt: Deputy PM

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said on Monday that Ankara had not taken any steps on normalizing relations with Egypt.

Speaking at a news conference after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, Kurtulmuş said neither formal nor informal steps have yet been taken.

“People of Turkey and Egypt are brothers. We have defended a democratic country in Egypt,” Kurtulmuş said.

He added that there was a democratic election in Egypt and it “should be honored” but the current regime overthrew the government with a military coup.

So, Turkey suspended the relations with Cairo authorities as it opposes coups and defends democracy, Kurtulmuş added.

He said that sentencing civilians as well as inprisoning the country's first democratically elected Mohamed Morsi and his supporters was an unacceptable situation.

While speaking on providing Turkish citizenship to Syrian refugees, Kurtulmuş said related government institutes have already started the process.

Only the “useful” and “non-terror related” Syrians will be awarded with Turkish nationality, he added.

The Government is working on a process to make Syrians, who can be considered an asset for Turkey who have never been linked with terrorism and could work as a bridge in relations between Turkey and Syria, citizens.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Syrians can be Turkish citizen and ordered the government to work on the issue.

Media reports say Turkey aimed to provide citizenship to skilled Syrians especially to doctors, engineers, technicians and businessmen in order to stop their journey to Europe.

Kurtulmuş said that a report of killing a senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) member in northern Syria had not yet been confirmed.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday that a Syrian opposition group had killed Fehman Hüseyin and his bodyguards in a bomb attack on Friday as he travelled to the northern Syrian city of Qamishli.

The killing of Hüseyin, known in Turkey by the name Bahoz Erdal, would be a blow to the PKK, which has faced a huge blow by Turkish security forces in recent clashes since a two-year ceasefire collapsed last summer.

"There is information from various news and intelligence channels saying Bahoz Erdal was killed, but this information is not yet confirmed," Kurtulmuş told reporters.

Hüseyin is one of the top names on Ankara's "red list" of most wanted terrorism suspects and regarded as one of the group's most senior figures.

He also touched upon ongoing crisis with Germany in order to a German parliamentary delegation's visit to Turkey's incirlik airbase where German troops and fighter jets stationed as part of its fight against Daesh.

Turkey said it would not allow a political delegation from Germany to visit the base while all kind of military delegation is permissible.

Negotiations for finding solution is going on, Kurtulmuş said adding that there were differences in two legal infrastructures.

In recent talks on strengthening Ankara-EU relations Turkey's steps for EU membership process, Kurtulmuş said Turkey will not give up EU. “Turkey will do its best for EU membership,” he said highlighting that two chapters for EU accession process have opened in less than six months.

“Turkey's relations will continue without regarding which developments happened in the EU,” Kurtulmuş added.