Obama phones Erdogan over political crisis in Egypt

US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have agreed that peoples' demands for “legitimate and natural democratic rights” should be recognized by their leaders, as political upheaval continues to rock the Middle East, from Egypt to Tunisia and from Lebanon to Yemen.

Obama initiated a telephone conversation with Erdoğan on Saturday night, the Turkish prime minister's press office said in a written statement released on Sunday.

Obama stated that he “attaches importance to assessing new developments in the region with Prime Minister Erdoğan as the leader of Turkey, which has strong democratic customs in the region,” and as a leader “who came to power by gaining successful election results many times,” the statement said, noting that the two leaders reached consensus that the legitimate and natural rights of the people of the region should be provided for and their calls for democracy should be heeded.

The two leaders “within this context, underscored that violence should not be used against people and voiced the hope that the developments in the regional countries would not lead to deep and fundamental instabilities,” the statement said.

Erdoğan and Obama also shared concerns that “instabilities will have damaging results for the regional countries,” it said, noting that the two leaders also decided to be in contact more frequently from now on concerning regional developments.

The statement by Erdoğan's office, which came on the sixth day of anti-government protests in Egypt as thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets in cities across the country, didn't name any specific regional country.


/World Bulletin/