Egypt media jumps the gun on Turkey coup

Egyptians woke up on Saturday to find some newspapers announcing the Turkish military’s ouster of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even as the strongman loathed by Cairo quashed a coup attempt.

‘The Turkish army topples Erdogan,’ declared a red banner on the front page of the state’s flagship Al-Ahram newspaper.

‘Recep Tayyip vanishes,’ said the subhead.

‘Army controls Turkey and deposes Erdogan,’ the private Al-Watan announced, labelling Friday night’s attempted coup by an army faction as ‘military disobedience’.

Erdogan is a main backer of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian president whom the army deposed in 2013.

Several Brotherhood leaders are in exile in Turkey, having fled a bloody crackdown against Islamists following Morsi’s overthrow.

Erdogan regularly attacks what he calls Egypt’s ‘coup’, infuriating Cairo.

Some Egyptian media personalities could not contain their glee as news of the attempted coup percolated overnight.