Prior to Monday, official leaks to Western and Turkish media regarding the ongoing investigation into the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi have only obliquely placed the blame on the Crown Prince and other senior Saudi officials, as President Erdogan has erred on the side of diplomacy – though that could all change tomorrow, when Erdogan has promised to share the results of Turkey’s investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, presumably including what role, if any, that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had in the plot.
And in a sign that the Turks might soon abandon their diplomatic facade, the latest round of leaks to Turkish media have suggested that the murder of Khashoggi “was planned in an extremely savage manner.” For those who haven’t closely parsed every update published by the Turkish press, this is the first time that Turkey has indicated that Ankara believes that Khashoggi’s murder was planned in advance.
And in the first official indication that Turkey believes Riyadh actively orchestrated a cover-up, AKP Spokesman Omer Celik complained that “we are faced witha situation where there has been a lot of effort to whitewash this.” Erdogan’s advisor Yasin Aktay wrote in the Yeni Safak daily that it “feels like our intelligence is being mocked.”
With Turkey seemingly on the verge of officially blaming Riyadh and MbS for Khashoggi’s death, the following warning sounded even more ominous.
“From the start, the line of our president has been clear. Nothing will remain secret in this case,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters, a day ahead of a key speech by Erdogan on the case.
Safak pointed out that Saudi security official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb had lead a team of 15 Saudis to Istanbul on the day that Khashoggi disappeared and that he called the head of Prince Mohammed’s office, Bader al-Asaker, “four times after the murder.”
Meanwhile, Abdulkadir Selvi, whose columns in the Hurriyet newspaper columns are closely watched for clues about Erdogan’s thinking, alleged that Khashoggi had been slowly strangled to death for eight minutes inside the consulate before a Saudi autopsy specialist cut his body into 15 pieces while listening to music. In the most forthright criticism levied at MbS by a Turkish official since the diplomatic crisis exploded into public view two weeks ago, Selvi called for MbS to be “removed from his post”
“We cannot close this file until the crown prince is brought to account and removed from his post. For 50 years we cannot live with a crown prince who is an enemy of Turkey,” said Selvi.
Meanwhile, Khashoggi’s remains have yet to be found, though Turkish investigators are said to be conducting a thorough search. But regardless of what they find, the tonal shift represented by these editorials is difficult to ignore. The Turkish stance toward Saudi Arabia is hardening, which suggests that Erdogan may be preparing to blow up the Saudis’ alibi that Khashoggi’s death was the result of an “interrogation gone wrong.”
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