On a recent programme, the Egyptian journalist loyal to the regime of General
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Amr Adib, waited for his guest, the tarot papers expert
Basant Yusuf, to predict the fate of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in
the new year 2020.
Basant stacked her astrology papers on the table before saying that Erdogan had
had a bit of luck that would end in the new year and that he would face problems
and betrayals from his allies.
Adib was greatly pleased at these words and promised Basant a reward if what
she predicted, happened.
Basant Yusef said in that episode that Erdogan will be on trial this year.
Over the past several days, Egyptian channels have hosted a number of
charlatans to predict the events of the new world, all of whom preached to the
Egyptians that living conditions and economic conditions would improve, and
demanded they be patient and cursed the opponents of the regime who predicted
horrific events.
The lack of professionalism and lack of credibility leads Adib and other Egyptian
media personalities to use charlatans, astrologers, and constellation readers to
exploit their alleged political predictions against everyone who opposes the
regime of General al-Sisi.
The predictions get worse as opposition to the regime escalates.
Astrologers work to numb the Egyptian people with predictions about the future
and the abundant good that awaits the Egyptians, if they are patient with the
ruling regime.
Basant Yusuf is one of a long list of astrologers along with Nevin Abu Shala,
Abeer Fouad, Joy Ayyad, Jana Ataya, Muhammad Pharaoh, Ahmed Shaheen, and
others, most of whom are permanent guests on Egyptian channels operated by
the security services, especially at the end of each year.

Despite the affirmation of the Egyptian Dar Al Ifta and the Al-Azhar Foundation
(the largest religious institution in the country) on the absolute prohibition of
astrology and the zodiac, the media insists on hosting astrologers and promoting
their allegations.
It was expected that Erdogan would be a target for the Egyptian media.
Tensions between Cairo and Ankara escalated recently after the Turkish
president signed two memorandas of understanding with the internationally
recognised Government of National Accord, the legitimate government of Libya,
on November 27.
The first memorandum provides for the delineation of maritime areas of
influence between the two parties, while the second provides for the
strengthening of security and military cooperation between them and allows the
dispatch of Turkish forces to Libya.
The Turkish president asked parliament to vote on a mandate regarding sending
troops to Libya at the request of the accord government, to confront the forces of
retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, who enjoys great support from Egypt.
Cairo called an emergency meeting of the Arab League to discuss the situation in
Libya, and explicitly declared its support for the forces of Haftar and the House of
Representatives of Tobruk, and attacked the accord government.
Egyptian journalists and analysts express great indignation at the way the
Egyptian media, which broadcasts from inside the country, deals with the crisis
between Egypt and Turkey.
Egyptian journalists say that the Egyptian media dealt with this crisis in a cliché
way, and did not analyse the military or regional scenarios, but rather resorted to
charlatans and sorcery.
The leftist journalist, Mohamed Gamal, says that Turkey manufactures large
numbers of drone aircraft, as well as armoured vehicles and tanks, and has
maritime capabilities that must be studied.
Gamal does not deny that the al-Sisi regime enjoys great financial support from
Saudi Arabia and the UAE and that Egypt manufactured armoured vehicles
recently, but he points out that these armoured vehicles are in fact to disperse
riots and demonstrations, and are not for combat missions.

Egypt can manufacture bullets and mortars, but they are all considered primitive
weapons compared to what Turkey can manufacture, and spending on imported
weapons cannot bridge this gap, because it is little. Is the al-Sisi regime planning
to bridge this gap using quacks?
But while pro-regime media channels brandish poor weapons, foremost of which
are tarot cards, to attack Erdogan, and make official, hostile statements against
Ankara, official statements from Turkey show that what is happening behind the
scenes is different from what is declared, especially with regard to the maritime
agreement.
Turkish presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın said that he had received
information from official and unofficial channels that Egypt was “very happy”
with that agreement.
The Turkish spokesman said in statements carried by the Anatolian Agency that
Egyptian officials are happy because the agreement expanded their maritime
jurisdiction, in reference to the return of a large part of the maritime borders that
Egypt had previously lost as a result of signing the maritime border demarcation
agreement with Greece and Cyprus.
A leaked document from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry revealed that it had been
recommended not to sign this agreement with Greece, because it harms Egypt’s
interests, removes a large area of its maritime borders and prevents it from
signing a future agreement with Turkey.