president of Egypt in June 2012, the most populous Muslim nation in the region was poised to be governed by the same Islamist group that shaped Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Obviously, Israel was unhappy with that development. Erdoǧan, on the other hand, was thrilled. He began to finance and arm Egypt, believing he had found his cohort in Morsi and envisioning a Muslim Brotherhood alliance that Turkey would lead. Egypt was in political, social, and economic tatters at the time. Turkey saw a vacuum emerge and wanted to fill it. For some
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