Turkish-Saudi rift could hinge on US reaction to missing journalist
The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist and Washington Post contributor, has created a triangle of fault lines between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of renowned Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi has irritated some Islamist elements of Turkey's ruling elite, but doesn't seem to have resonated with the Turkish public as much as it has outside Turkey. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, hasn't been seen in public since he entered the Saudi consulate Oct. 2 in Istanbul.
The Turkish public is familiar with extrajudicial killings and the disappearance of dissidents. Indeed, for years, dozens of people have gathered in Istanbul’s central Taksim neighborhood every Saturday seeking to learn the fate of their loved ones who disappeared during Turkey’s troubled 1980s and 1990s. The protesters staging these sit-ins are called “Saturday Mothers.”
Also, earlier this year, some Turkish nationals in Kosovo and in Moldova were abducted and brought back to Turkey, allegedly for being linked to Fethullah Gulen, a Sunni cleric the Turkish government blames for the botched coup attempt in July 2016.
Hence, Turkey perhaps seems an appropriate place to abduct and even kill someone such as Khashoggi. The concern initially expressed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his adviser Yasin Aktay and presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Khashoggi's fate, therefore, is a matter of irony for many Turks.
