Are Gul, Erdogan Playing 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' With Egypt?
It appears Turkey’s president and prime minister are playing a "good cop, bad cop" routine on Egypt, but their differences are real.
The holidays — Ramazan Bayrami, or Eid al-Fidtr — marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the weekend that followed allowed Turkey a relatively long respite after the tensions of recent times, nourished every day by a new round of polemics. For about a week, Turkey was freed of this politically hot and tense environment.
True, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had spoken on the first day of the holidays, and at one point blasted the Nobel Committee for awarding the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to Mohamed ElBaradei. Perhaps, however, it is because Turks are so used to their prime minister lambasting someone or another on any given day that they have learned to largely ignore his rants. Turks were also otherwise busy trying to get themselves to resorts during the hot summer days capping Ramadan. In the Greek islands near the Turkish Aegean coast, the number of holidaying Turks was equal to the Greeks enjoying their summer.
