The recent Turkish crisis was a subject of several op-eds by Egyptian writers in Wednesday’s newspapers.
In the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram, Makram Mohamed Ahmed wrote an op-ed reviewing the responsibilities of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump as he presented Erdogan as entering a lost battle with the US and becoming a burden to his own country’s interests and failing to find constructive solutions to the crisis.
As for Al-Ahram’s Ahmed Abdel Tawab, Erdogan will eventually surrender to the US as he did before with the Israelis and Russians, despite the escalations he has been making, describing his actions to be between “rush to the extent of overstatement” and “pragmatism to the point of futility.”
Editor-in-chief of the privately-owned Al-Shorouk newspaper Emad El-Din Hussein drew a comparison between the Muslim Brotherhood supporters and supporters of Erdogan when they criticised Egypt’s decision to float the Egyptian pound but did not dare so in face of Erdogan’s policies which led to the decrease in value of the currency. Likewise, he argued, these groups would not comment on Erdogan’s crackdown on political opposition and human rights’ abuses because they use double standards allowing Erdogan to get away but not President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Meanwhile, several writers commented on real estate taxes, which the government is aiming to collect soon. Al-Ahram’s Farouk Goweida not only opinionated that the timing was unsuccessful given the increasing economic burdens faced by citizens and price hikes, but even stated that people should not be paying taxes for their personal homes.
This was also the argument of Al-Masry Al-Youm’s Seliman Gouda, who called on the new finance minister to reconsider the decision. He also highlighted as unfair that the same authority estimating the value of properties collects taxes, leaving no space for objections or negotiations.
On a different note, Sameh Fawzy in Al-Shorouk continued to comment on Coptic affairs sparked by the recent murder of Bishop Epiphanius, arguing that it does not matter the religion of the researcher or writer who analyses events as long as their agenda remains responsible, defending Muslim analysts who have been criticised and saying they have shown more responsibility than some Copts who tried to take advantage of the situation.
