How Muslim Brotherhood May Lead to ‘New Conflict Between US and Turkey’

The deputy leader of the Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP), Erdogan Toprak, in his weekly report on the parliamentary agenda brought up the topics of the Turkish ruling AKP party’s foreign policy and recent statements of the president and prime minister.

In his report, Toprak mentioned that if the US officially recognizes the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, relations between Turkey and the US may experience new and more serious tensions.

Regarding the terrorist organizations Daesh and Jabhat- al-Nusra, the report said that at the very beginning of the military operations in Syria, the entire international community recognized the two groups as radical Islamist terrorist organizations. The two groups were included in the corresponding list for all these years, but were not officially announced by the government of Justice and Development Party (AKP) as terrorists.

Only after the terrorist attack in Turkey's Reyhanlı, the government recognized al-Nusra an extremist group and after the explosion in Suruç, an official statement about the need to combat Daesh was voiced.

Almost immediately after Turkey expressed its determination to fight Daesh, there were attacks in Diyarbakir, Ankara and Istanbul, the report noted.

The AKP leadership for the past 14 years in power has been supporting organizations, which most of the world has recognized as terrorists.

The report stated that, “In 14 years of its rule, the AKP maintained close relations and assisted Muslim Brotherhood, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Egypt.”

Furthermore, the AKP established close cooperation and friendly relations with Hamas, a recognized terrorist group in Israel.

It also acted as a host country by providing housing, protection, a company car and an office to Tariq al-Hashimi, who was accused by the Iraqi authorities of involvement in terrorist activities.

The report further talks about the support that AKP provides in terms of arms, money, ammunition, construction of camps for training of Daesh, al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army, which official Damascus considers as terrorist groups.

The AKP also provided support for radical Islamists in Libya, helping them with weapons, money and also an opportunity to stay in Turkey.

"Considering all of the above, how should one respond to the statements by the Turkish President, Prime Minister and the AKP government, which accuses the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party of terrorism?" Toprak said.

Toprak also expressed the view that in the near future there is a danger of a new conflict of interest in the fight against terrorism between the AKP government, President Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu on the one hand and the US leadership on the other.

MP justifies his opinion based on the decision of the US House of Justice to the Commission to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization by including it in the appropriate list.

The bill also stated that the group is recognized as a terrorist organization, in particularly in the countries such as Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Toprak said that if the bill gets approved by the General Assembly, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the “Erdogan-Davutoglu tandem known for its active support of the Muslim Brotherhood, will be in the position of an accomplice of a terrorist organization,” the report noted.