Ankara hopes Egypt\'s decision not to affect ties

Turkish President Abdullah Gul hoped here on Saturday Egypt's decision to downgrade diplomatic ties with Turkey would be "temporary", and should not affect close bilateral relations. Earlier in the day, Egypt decided to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Turkey and declared the Turkish ambassador in Cairo a "persona non-grata". Trying to cool tensions between Ankara and Cairo, Gul said in remarks cited by Anadolu news agency: "This situation between Turkey and Egypt is temporary and conjectural." "Turkey and Egypt are just like two halves of an apple on the two sides of the Mediterranean. We're very sad about what's going on in Egypt. I hope the relations will be back on track," he said. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry's Spokesman Badr Abdelati told a news conference that the Egyptian government had decided to downgrade Turkey's diplomatic representation to that of a charge d'affaires, and had already recalled its own ambassador in Ankara, Egypt's official news agency, MENA reported. Turkey had repeatedly criticized the military ouster of jailed President Morsi, who has been held in detention pending trial since July. Source: KUNA