ANKARA - Turkey’s president highlighted importance of constitutional democracy during his one-day visit to Egypt, diplomats said on Friday.
Diplomats said President Abdullah Gul briefed his Egyptian interlocutors on the reform process in Turkey.
"Gul told his interlocutors that economy, politics and law was connected to each other, and Egypt could make use of Turkey’s experiences if it wanted," diplomats said.
They said Gul said it would be useful for Egypt to give time to groups for political organization and to hold elections when political movements were ready.
Turkey and Egypt decided to cooperate and help the Egyptians who were at Egypt-Libya border or who had returned to their homeland from Libya due to the ongoing turmoil in that country.
During the meetings, Egyptian executives said they were watching Turkey’s experiences and they wished to see party structures and political life in Turkey.
They defined Turkey as a model, and all Egyptian parties were willing to cooperate with Turkey.
The military executives in Egypt said they aimed to leave the administration to the civilians as soon as possible.
President Gul travelled to Egypt on Thursday, and met Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Armed Forces Supreme Council.
Other executives Gul had talks with were National Association for Change’s chairperson and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei; members of January 25 Revolutionary Youth Group; Arab League’s Secretary General Amr Moussa; Muslim Brotherhood’s leader Mohammed Bedi; chairperson of political party El-Ghad Ayman Nour; president of Egypt’s New Wafd party Sayyid al-Badawi, as well as George Ishak, chairman of Kifaya Group (the Egyptian Movement for Change).
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests in January 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia seemed to inflame decades of smoldering grievances against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. After 18 days of angry protests, Mubarak resigned and turned over all power to the military on February 11, ending his 30 years of rule.