People in Turkey Protest against Egyptian Crackdown


People in Turkey Protest against Egyptian Crackdown

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hundreds of demonstrators waving Islamic flags and chanting anti-US slogans took to the streets in Turkey's two biggest cities on Friday to protest at the bloody security crackdown in Egypt on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi.

In the capital Ankara, around 1,000 protesters marched from the largest mosque after Friday prayers to the US embassy, where the crowd, angered by Washington's failure to call Mursi's ouster a coup, chanted "Murderer America, get out of Turkey".

Riot police stood watch nearby but there was no intervention by the security forces. The crowds were kept back from the embassy grounds and were later allowed to move their protest to outside the Egyptian embassy a short distance away, Reuters reported.

In Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, hundreds of protesters gathered in the conservative district of Eyup, shouting pro-Mursi and Islamic slogans and waving Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian opposition flags.

Turkey has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of what it has called an "unacceptable coup" after the military toppled Mursi last month. On Thursday it recalled its ambassador, prompting Cairo to reciprocate.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused the West of double standards in failing to condemn Mursi's ouster. Anti-Western sentiment runs high among sections of Turkish society, especially religious conservatives.

 

 

 

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