Zürcher Nachrichten - Saudi prince arrives in Turkey for talks clouded by Khashoggi murder

EUR -
AED 4.146259
AFN 81.957085
ALL 98.997864
AMD 441.022582
ANG 2.03447
AOA 1029.520087
ARS 1352.524501
AUD 1.77801
AWG 2.034769
AZN 1.914001
BAM 1.947905
BBD 2.281353
BDT 137.283562
BGN 1.957425
BHD 0.42542
BIF 3359.154898
BMD 1.12886
BND 1.486661
BOB 7.807286
BRL 6.645481
BSD 1.12992
BTN 96.819712
BWP 15.585106
BYN 3.69758
BYR 22125.646212
BZD 2.269581
CAD 1.575674
CDF 3245.471409
CHF 0.92902
CLF 0.028518
CLP 1094.373105
CNY 8.295378
CNH 8.273485
COP 4911.667687
CRC 570.881045
CUC 1.12886
CUP 29.914777
CVE 109.819877
CZK 25.097818
DJF 200.621161
DKK 7.470533
DOP 69.040166
DZD 149.983659
EGP 57.541325
ERN 16.932893
ETB 149.608182
FJD 2.59158
FKP 0.856865
GBP 0.853542
GEL 3.104271
GGP 0.856865
GHS 17.512862
GIP 0.856865
GMD 80.71199
GNF 9779.362236
GTQ 8.71169
GYD 236.38977
HKD 8.757071
HNL 29.291276
HRK 7.540975
HTG 147.790973
HUF 408.184805
IDR 18989.110089
ILS 4.152871
IMP 0.856865
INR 96.773118
IQD 1480.100847
IRR 47539.101829
ISK 145.37433
JEP 0.856865
JMD 178.755467
JOD 0.800586
JPY 161.729457
KES 146.414466
KGS 98.71786
KHR 4525.616656
KMF 489.338444
KPW 1015.933376
KRW 1612.056332
KWD 0.346402
KYD 0.9416
KZT 584.565458
LAK 24469.60291
LBP 101236.570583
LKR 336.81482
LRD 225.98405
LSL 21.344188
LTL 3.333228
LVL 0.682836
LYD 6.188915
MAD 10.492856
MDL 19.51923
MGA 5155.059818
MKD 61.527425
MMK 2370.060558
MNT 3991.054905
MOP 9.029103
MRU 44.720738
MUR 50.911286
MVR 17.395548
MWK 1959.241436
MXN 22.715577
MYR 4.981087
MZN 72.127418
NAD 21.344188
NGN 1812.338779
NIO 41.581462
NOK 12.012533
NPR 154.911739
NZD 1.910837
OMR 0.434595
PAB 1.12991
PEN 4.220991
PGK 4.601431
PHP 64.029485
PKR 317.016866
PLN 4.297192
PYG 9029.401979
QAR 4.124483
RON 4.980641
RSD 116.77565
RUB 93.159968
RWF 1600.668878
SAR 4.235967
SBD 9.446688
SCR 16.12635
SDG 677.881658
SEK 11.185135
SGD 1.488065
SHP 0.887106
SLE 25.681468
SLL 23671.600967
SOS 645.677218
SRD 41.936871
STD 23365.112504
SVC 9.886926
SYP 14677.271232
SZL 21.320395
THB 37.918727
TJS 12.247848
TMT 3.962297
TND 3.391155
TOP 2.643897
TRY 43.00706
TTD 7.672832
TWD 36.709419
TZS 3036.632629
UAH 46.528037
UGX 4142.210769
USD 1.12886
UYU 48.205467
UZS 14653.605926
VES 87.055444
VND 29147.152305
VUV 138.625776
WST 3.168028
XAF 653.303241
XAG 0.034934
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.050799
XDR 0.812034
XOF 653.309004
XPF 119.331742
YER 276.937498
ZAR 21.488506
ZMK 10161.090561
ZMW 32.031884
ZWL 363.492299
  • CMSD

    -0.0300

    21.88

    -0.14%

  • CMSC

    -0.0100

    21.8

    -0.05%

  • BCE

    -0.4100

    21.24

    -1.93%

  • NGG

    1.5900

    70.98

    +2.24%

  • BCC

    -1.0400

    93.87

    -1.11%

  • JRI

    0.2735

    12.27

    +2.23%

  • SCS

    -0.2800

    9.95

    -2.81%

  • RIO

    0.2500

    57.26

    +0.44%

  • RBGPF

    0.1400

    63.59

    +0.22%

  • GSK

    0.4000

    35.68

    +1.12%

  • AZN

    -0.1400

    67.87

    -0.21%

  • RYCEF

    0.3200

    9.7

    +3.3%

  • BTI

    0.3100

    42.32

    +0.73%

  • VOD

    0.1500

    9.11

    +1.65%

  • BP

    0.3000

    27.21

    +1.1%

  • RELX

    1.3900

    51.51

    +2.7%

Saudi prince arrives in Turkey for talks clouded by Khashoggi murder
Saudi prince arrives in Turkey for talks clouded by Khashoggi murder / Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY - AFP

Saudi prince arrives in Turkey for talks clouded by Khashoggi murder

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on Wednesday took another step out of his international isolation by paying his first visit to Turkey since the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Text size:

The talks in Ankara between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan come one month before US President Joe Biden visits Riyadh for a regional summit focused on the energy crunch caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

President Erdogan's decision to revive ties with one of his biggest rivals is also driven in large part by economics and trade.

Turks' living standards are imploding one year before a general election that poses one of the biggest challenges of Erdogan's mercurial two-decade rule.

Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government released gruesome details of the murder that included allegations that Khashoggi's body was dismembered and its parts dissolved in acid.

But it is now drumming up investment and central bank assistance from the very countries it opposed on ideological grounds in the wake of the Arab Spring revolts.

"I think this is probably one of the most significant visits to Ankara by a foreign leader in almost a decade," said The Washington Institute's Turkey specialist Soner Cagaptay.

"Erdogan is all about Erdogan. He's all about winning elections and I think he has decided to kind of swallow his pride."

The Turkish leader is due to receive the crown prince at his presidential palace and then host him at a private dinner.

No press conference or signing ceremony is planned.

Analysts believe Prince Mohammed will be looking to see if he can win broader backing ahead of a possible new nuclear agreement between world powers and the Saudis' arch-nemesis Iran.

"There is increased confidence (in Riyadh) that Ankara could be more useful in the current geopolitical environment," the Eurasia Group said in a research note.

- 'His bones would ache' -

Turkey's rapprochement with the Saudis began with an Istanbul court decision in April to break off the trial in absentia of 26 suspects accused of links to Khashoggi's killing and to transfer the case to Riyadh.

US intelligence officials have determined that Prince Mohammed approved the plot against Khashoggi -- which Riyadh denies.

The court's decision drew strong protests from Khashoggi's Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz. She told AFP on Wednesday that she viewed the summit as "unacceptable".

"If Jamal had a tomb, his bones would ache," said Cengiz.

But the Istanbul ruling paved the way for a politically sensitive visit to Saudi Arabia by Erdogan just three weeks later.

The kingdom's state media ended up releasing a picture of Erdogan hugging the crown prince that created a furore in Turkey.

"He gets off the plane and hugs the killers," fumed Turkey's opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Ankara expects the mending of fences between the two Sunni powers to help prop up the Turkish economy at a crucial stage of Erdogan's rule.

A Turkish official said the sides will discuss a range of issues that include cooperation between banks and support for small and medium-sized businesses.

- Lack of trust -

Erdogan's unconventional economic approach has set off an inflationary spiral that has seen consumer prices almost double in the past year.

Analysts believe the resulting drop in Erdogan's public approval and depletion of state reserves mean the Turkish leader can ill afford to maintain his hostile stance toward petrodollar-rich Gulf states.

Turkey's problems with the Saudis began when Erdogan refused to accept Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood from power in Cairo in 2013.

The Saudis and other Arab kingdoms viewed the Brotherhood as an existential threat.

Those rivalries intensified after Turkey tried to break the nearly four-year blockade the Saudis and their allies imposed on Qatar in 2017.

Analysts believe that Washington is watching this gradual return of regional calm with an approving nod.

"Encouraged by the United States, this rapprochement is relaxing tensions and building diplomacy across the region," said the US-based Middle East Institute's Turkish scholar Gonul Tol.

But Tol questioned whether Prince Mohammed was prepared to fully trust Erdogan.

The crown prince "will not easily forget the attitude adopted by Turkey after the Khashoggi affair", she said.

R.Bernasconi--NZN