Turkey has pointed out it is not a signatory to the treaty which set up the Hague-based ICC, and that Beshir was invited to the meeting by the OIC and not Ankara.
“The Sudanese see and understand well the difficulties,” a high-ranking Turkish diplomat who requested anonymity said ahead of the cancellation.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the Islamist-rooted ruling AKP party, questioned the charges against Beshir and said that “no Muslim could perpetrate a genocide,” according to Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.
“If there was such a thing [a genocide], we could talk about it face to face with President Beshir,” the first sitting national leader the ICC has indicted, Erdogan said.
Beshir was in Egypt on Sunday, taking part in a China-Africa summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Aides said last week that the president intended to travel to Turkey but no final decision had been taken.
SUNA said Beshir has to return to Khartoum to “find a solution” to the dispute between the NCP and the SPLM.
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