Turkey’s issue with Egypt not people but ruler: Erdogan

Turkey has no problem with Egyptian people, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

In remarks made following Eid al-Fitr prayer in Istanbul, Erdogan said: “The problem with Egypt is an issue with its administration, especially with its ruler.”

Ankara and Cairo have had troubled ties following the ouster of Egypt's first democratically-elected leader Mohamed Morsi in a 2013 military coup led by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, then defense minister and now president.

Morsi has since then been slapped with life-in-prison and death sentences for allegedly "conspiring against Egypt" -- with Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah -- and for supposedly breaking out of jail in 2011.

He has also been sentenced with a 20-year jail term for allegedly committing murder. The former president also faces charges of "insulting" Egypt’s judiciary.

Morsi and his co-defendants, along with a number of independent observers, say the charges are politically driven.

Erdogan said he could not condone such Egyptian rulings.

The president also said that Ankara would increase the pace of its anti-terror campaign following the Eid al-Fitr.

“As long as the unity and brotherhood continues, we will definitely overcome this terror,” he said.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015; since then around 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 5,000 PKK terrorists killed.