Some of Egypt’s pro-military media jumped the gun in their reporting on Friday night’s attempted coup in Turkey, declaring it a success and welcoming the overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported ABC News.
At least three newspapers ran headlines Saturday declaring that Turkey’s army had overthrown Erdogan. But as their print edition was published, Turkey’s government had largely succeeded in quashing the attempted coup.
Egyptians woke up Saturday to find some newspapers announcing the Turkish military’s ouster of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even as the strongman loathed by Cairo quashed a coup attempt.
A red banner on the front page of the state’s flagship Al-Ahram newspaper (a state owned newspaper) declared, “The Turkish army topples Erdogan.”
“Recep Tayyip vanishes,” said the subhead.
“Army controls Turkey and deposes Erdogan,” the private newspaper Al-Watan announced, labelling Friday night’s attempted coup by an army faction as “military disobedience”.
As the events unfolded in the beginning of the attempted coup, Egyptian TV personality Ahmed Moussa declared “this isn’t a military coup,” but “a revolution within the Turkish armed forces.” Moussa has backed Egypt’s military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi is the first democratically elected President in 2013.
Erdogan has harshly condemned Morsi’s overthrow, and the two countries have had tense relations since.
Several Brotherhood live in exile in Turkey, having fled a bloody crackdown against Islamists following Morsi’s overthrow.
Erdogan regularly attacks Egypt’s military coup, infuriating Cairo.
Another Egyptian talk show host, Osama Kamal, appeared to mock Erdogan for appearing on a television interview over a mobile phone during the early hours of the coup attempt.
Erdogan had been on a seaside vacation when tanks rolled into the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. He appeared on television over a mobile phone to urge supporters into the streets to defend the government, spurring large crowds to heed his call, before flying home early Saturday and declaring the coup to have failed.
The coverage in the Egyptian media and the premature announcements of Erdogan’s ouster was criticized on social media.
One wrote on Twitter, “The coup is victorious in the pages of Egyptian newspapers.”
Egypt’s presidency, meanwhile, has remained silent on the coup attempt, while the foreign ministry released a statement on consular efforts to help Egyptians in Turkey.
