Turkey's Ambassador to Cairo briefs the cabinet on Egypt

Turkey's Ambassador to Cairo Huseyin Avni Botsali, summoned to Ankara on Thursday, joined the Cabinet meeting on Monday in order to brief ministers concerning the latest developments in Egypt. Arriving in Ankara on Friday, Botsali was received by President Abdullah Gul and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu separately before the Cabinet convened and informed them about the course of developments in Egypt. He then briefed the Cabinet and responded to the questions of ministers. It has been reported that the briefing centered on two scenarios for Egypt. The optimistic scenario has been described as the release of ousted President Mohamed Morsi followed by democratic elections, which according to Botsali was a remote possibility. The pessimistic scenario, on the other hand, was a ratcheting up of the tension by the military in order to justify an even more intense crackdown on Egyptians by security forces. Ambassador Botsali noted that the latter was a more probable scenario and had the potential to drag the country into a civil war.