Days before President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi’s visit to Turkey on 4 September, Helmi Al-Gazzar, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Political Bureau in London, said “the Muslim Brotherhood is ready to abandon involvement in political activities in Egypt for 15 years in return for the release of its leaders who are serving prison sentences.”

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned and designated a terrorist group by a court ruling since 2013 for its involvement in terrorist activities that threatened Egypt’s national security.

In an article on the Brotherhood’s official website on 24 August, Al-Gazzar said the group’s decision to abandon politics reflected its flexibility and openness to reconciliation.

“We know that the path to reconciliation is difficult, but it is not impossible. It needs simultaneous steps to be taken by both sides. The Egyptian government has to release our political prisoners in return for the group abandoning any involvement in political life in Egypt for 15 years,” wrote Al-Gazzar. He also issued an appeal “to anyone who can mediate to free our political prisoners”.

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently divided into two rival factions, one based in London and the other in Istanbul. 

In a post on X, Brotherhood activist Amr Abdel-Hadi said President Al-Sisi’s visit to Turkey offered a chance for reconciliation between the group and the Egyptian presidency.

“Muslim Brotherhood officials believe that Turkey is a friendly country and that its leaders can use Al-Sisi’s visit to urge him to accept the group’s offer of reconciliation,” wrote Abdel-Hadi.

Official Egyptian statements about the one-day visit to Turkey made no mention of the Brotherhood’s offer. The president’s office instead said that talks between Al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan had focused on economic cooperation and raising the relationship between the two countries to the strategic level.

Former Muslim Brotherhood activist Abdel-Gelil Al-Sharnoubi said that “the fact that thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members are living in Turkey and were using television channels there to attack President Al-Sisi’s government strained relations between Cairo and Ankara for 10 years.”

“Recently, though, with Turkey adopting a pragmatic approach to its relations with Egypt, Brotherhood leaders are feeling the pinch and hope reconciliation with the Egyptian presidency might offer a way out of their current crisis.”

“The group is facing problems with Arab governments in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt and appears to think reconciliation could turn a new page and help it restore its influence. But most Arab states do not trust the Muslim Brotherhood. They accuse it of using the Arab Spring revolutions to serve its own interests and ideological agenda.”

Al-Sharnoubi believes the Brotherhood’s sudden switch to reconciliation rhetoric is simply a “tactic” that it hopes might secure the release of its members and does not represent a radical change or revisionist policy.

The initiative was sharply criticised by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Istanbul office led by Mahmoud Hussein which described the call as “a betrayal of the group and its members” and a bid by Al-Gazzar’s London-based faction to assert leadership of the group.

Al-Gazzar, a physician, advocated for Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated president Mohamed Morsi to resign following growing demonstrations against his rule. He was released from jail on bail in August 2014 and immediately left for London.

Fearing a backlash from the Turkish authorities, the Brotherhood’s Istanbul office was noticeably silent on President Al-Sisi’s visit to Ankara. Al-Chark, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated TV channel broadcasting from Istanbul, did however describe Al-Sisi’s visit as “historic” and a reflection of the new atmosphere of reconciliation between the two countries.

Al-Ahram analyst Hisham Al-Naggar believes Al-Sisi’s visit to Turkey caught the Muslim Brotherhood on the back foot.

“Erdogan’s visit to Cairo in February was the first shock, only to be followed by a second when Al-Sisi landed in Ankara,” said Al-Naggar. “They chose not to comment on the visit or criticise it in order not to antagonise the Turkish authorities.”

“In the past, when Ankara and Cairo were at loggerheads, the Turkish authorities gave the Brotherhood free rein to attack the government in Egypt. Now, after Al-Sisi’s visit, Brotherhood members are being allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons.”

Al-Naggar also argued that “the closer relations become between Egypt and Turkey, the more isolated the group —whether in Istanbul or London — becomes.”

Beshir Abdel-Fattah, an expert with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the Muslim Brotherhood’s reconciliation initiative followed many European countries cold-shouldering the group.

“They hoped they could use Al-Sisi’s visit to declare this initiative, end their growing isolation and secure the release of prisoners,” said Abdel-Fattah.

He does not expect “this Brotherhood manoeuvre” to succeed. Instead, “as part of the new strategic relationship between Cairo and Ankara, it is possible Turkey might even arrest some Brotherhood leaders and hand them to Cairo on terrorism violence charges.”

The Al-Sisi-Erdogan summit in Ankara was the second since relations between Egypt and Turkey began to thaw after the decade-long diplomatic standoff that followed Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in 2013.

The warming of relations has already led the Turkish authorities to crack down on some Muslim Brotherhood elements. In June, Brotherhood TV host Emad Al-Beheiri was arrested and other Brotherhood members are reported to have been asked to leave Turkey.

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* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly