MB leaders in Turkey shudder with horror

In the latest signs of rapprochement between Ankara and Cairo, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that a senior Turkish diplomatic delegation will visit Cairo in May.

As the anticipated visit by Turkish delegation to Cairo draws near, Muslim Brotherhood young people and some leaders in Turkey started to shake on the possibility of being deported in the coming period.

The development led to various disputes within the group, which has been compounded by the recent Egyptian-Turkish rapprochement.

Turkey has many as 20,000 members of the group, according to a recent report by U.S. think tank the Century Foundation, including dozens of the movement’s most powerful and influential figures.

Experts say the youth of the Brotherhood are in a state of confusion and uncertainty. They believe if the Turkish authorities began deporting some wanted young men to Cairo, within the framework of rapprochement, those who do not have the support of the leaders will be sent back home.

A number of the organization’s youth in Ankara complain that the leadership has completely abandoned them, after they were promised to obtain identification papers that enable them to travel outside the country, according to observers.

Turkey had ordered Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated television channels based in Istanbul to halt criticism of Egypt as the two countries move closer to a rapprochement.

Turkey’s decision to oblige anti-Cairo channels to adhere to media charters has kept Brotherhood youth in disarray. Some of them believe the channels will be shut down permanently, or members will be handed over to Egypt.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders believe that Turkish citizenship and media positions can no longer protect them.

Ties between Ankara and Cairo have been strained since 2013, when Egypt’s army toppled a Muslim Brotherhood president close to Turkey, in what Ankara said was a military coup.

Recently, however, Turkey has begun working to rebuild ties with Egypt and Gulf Arab states, trying to overcome differences which have left Ankara increasingly isolated in the Arab world.