The journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Turkey’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The Saudi crown prince will visit Turkey for the first time since that time. To mend strained ties, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet privately with Mohammed bin Salman.
Erdogan once implied that the prince had given the order for Saudi agents to kill Khashoggi. He said he was not involved. Turkey is seeking trade, investment, and support as its economic crisis gets worse. This is why they are visiting.
After years of animosity, it has also worked to strengthen ties with Israel, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Prince Mohammed wants to break out of his exile abroad. As part of a Middle East tour, he also paid visits to Jordan and Egypt this week. Next month, he will meet US President Joe Biden. Biden has vowed to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are” for the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
In order to obtain the documents he needed to wed his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist based in the US and a vocal opponent of Prince Mohammed, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
He was “brutally assassinated” by a 15-person Saudi agent team sent from Riyadh. According to a UN investigation, his body was mutilated. After hearing alleged audio recordings of discussions inside the consulate made by Turkish intelligence, which came to conclusion.
Erdogan implied that he knew the order to assassinate Khashoggi. It came from the top echelons of the Saudi administration, although not accusing Prince Mohammed explicitly.
Saudi Prince unaware of the operation
US intelligence services came to the conclusion that the crown prince had given the go-ahead for a plan to kidnap or murder Khashoggi. The prince had no knowledge of the operation, according to Saudi authorities who accused “rogue” operatives.
Five unidentified individuals were found guilty of personally taking part in the murder a year after it occurred by a Saudi court. Their death sentences were eventually changed to 20 years in prison. And the other three further individuals were sentenced to seven to ten years in prison for covering up the crime.
The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed, will be meeting with President Erdogan in Ankara this week to discuss bringing regional relations to a “far higher level.”
The two leaders signing agreements are on energy, the economy, and security, as mentioned by senior Turkish official. The visit was anticipated to bring “a full normalization and a return of the pre-crisis period.”
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is the major opposition party in Turkey. However, he criticized Mr. Erdogan for inviting Prince Mohammed and for his decision to “embrace the guy who ordered the killing” of Jamal Khashoggi.
As their nations began what he called a “new epoch of cooperation,” Mr. Erdogan traveled to Saudi Arabia in April. He gave the prince a public embrace. Three weeks prior to that visit, a judge in Istanbul halted the trial in absentia of 26 Saudi nationals, including two of the crown prince’s advisors, who were charged with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
The court announced that the case would be turned over to Saudi Arabian judicial authorities because that country had rejected extraditing the accused. Human rights advocates and Khashoggi’s fiancée, who vowed to keep fighting for justice, blasted the action as a cover-up.
