Military honors, gala dinner, accolades, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, did not skimp on the welcome reserved for the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman (MBS), whom he received with pomp in his palace in Bestepe , in Ankara, Wednesday, June 22. The cavalry were decked out in Turkish and Saudi flags, the national anthems were played by the orchestra, the two leaders embraced each other, sealing their reconciliation after years of animosity and paralysis in trade and diplomatic relations.
The joint press release published at the end of the talks praises the opening of a “new era of cooperation” in the “perfect relationships” maintained by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The page has indeed been turned since the major diplomatic crisis triggered by the sordid assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
National of the kingdom, critic of the prince’s policy, the chronicler of the washington post had gone to the consulate for an administrative procedure, he never came out. The Turkish press then revealed that he had been killed and then dismembered by a team of Saudi killers commissioned by Riyadh. The order to kill the journalist had come “from the highest levels of the Saudi government”said Mr. Erdogan, promising to get to the truth about this “political assassination”. In Ankara as in Washington, Crown Prince Ben Salman was presented as the main sponsor of the murder.
Improve its image
Now is not the time for accusations. US President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month and President Erdogan, strapped for cash and investments with less than a year to go before the election, is desperate to get closer to the prince, who, for its part, wishes to restore its image. Ankara was the last stage of a tour which took him to Egypt and Jordan, to better give the measure of his regional interpersonal skills before the arrival of President Biden.
Turkey hopes for investments in several sectors: banks, tourism, defense industry. For its part, the kingdom is very interested in the production of drones.
Ankara is burning to increase its exports, which have fallen to just over $200 million from $3.2 billion in 2019, according to official statistics. A drop due to the unofficial boycott of Turkish products put in place by Riyadh in 2020. It has since been lifted, as has the ban on Saudis staying in Turkey, canceled by MBS a few days before his tour.
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Source: Lemonde
