MBS visits Ankara to seal reconciliation after Khashoggi affair

God willing, we will see to what level we can raise the relations between Turkey and Saudi ArabiaTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, confirming the arrival of MBS, leader de facto of the Saudi kingdom.

Act 1 of the reconciliation took place at the end of April: President Erdogan, who will play for his re-election next year and must repair a Turkish economy in crisis, went to Saudi Arabia to discuss with the Crown Prince of means of develop relations between their two countries.

Three weeks earlier, the Turkish courts had decided to close the trial for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, columnist for the washington post killed and dismembered in October 2018 in the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he came to collect documents necessary for his marriage to his Turkish fiancée.

By sending the cumbersome dossier to the Saudi authorities, Ankara had paved the way for rapprochement with Riyadh.

Act 2 will take place on Wednesday: MBS, who arrived in Ankara at the end of a regional tour that began in Egypt on Monday, is to be received by Mr. Erdogan at the presidential palace from 4:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. EDT ), according to the Turkish presidency.

No press conference is scheduled.

Several agreements are to be signed during the visit, a senior Turkish official told AFP.

It has been one of the most important visits to Ankara for almost a decadebelieves Soner Cagaptay, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who recalls that the cold between Riyadh and Ankara dates back to 2013.

At the time, President Erdogan had supported against Marshal al-Sissi the deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood, a pet peeve of Saudi Arabia.

The blockade imposed in 2017 by Saudi Arabia on Qatar, an ally of Ankara, then the Khashoggi affair the following year, had aggravated the discord.

At the time, the Turkish President accused the highest levels of the Saudi government of ordering the assassination.

But less than a year from the presidential election scheduled for mid-June 2023, President Erdogan is stepping up initiatives to normalize relations with several regional powers – Saudi Arabia, but also Israel and the United Arab Emirates – in search of investments and tourist flows.

After two decades at the head of the Turkish state, Mr. Erdogan must deal with the plummeting of the Turkish lira (-44% against the dollar in 2021 and -23% since January 1) and inflation (73.5% over a year in May) which is ravaging the purchasing power of the Turks, making his re-election uncertain.

You sent the “Khashoggi” file back to Saudi Arabia for money, like a beggarfumed Tuesday the leader of the main Turkish opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

If Jamal had a grave he would turn around in itreacted to AFP Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of Mr. Khashoggi at the time of his assassination.

For MBS, this visit marks the end of the banishment on the part of Westerners; US President Joe Biden, who will travel to the Middle East in mid-July for the first time since joining the White House, has planned a stopover in Saudi Arabia, where he will meet the Crown Prince.

” For Saudi Arabia, one of the primary motivations is to create a Sunni front, which will include Turkey, to counter Iran’s influence in the region. “

The talks could also involve military and defense cooperation or the purchase of arms, as the Saudis want to explore the possibility of diversifying their suppliersadvances the firm Eurasia Group in a research note.

But for Gönül Tol, the son of King Salman will not easily forget Turkey’s attitude during the Khashoggi affair.

During this period, MBS sought to promote a reformer image in the country and on the international scene. However, by revealing the Khashoggi affair, Turkey has seriously damaged this image.