Turkey Says Saudi Special Kill Team Killed Jamal Khashoggi Inside Istanbul Consulate

Jamal Khashoggi, described by Shafaqna as a prominent activist journalist and a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia, was reported by Reuters citing Turkish sources to have been killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, after he went there on Tuesday to obtain documents for his marriage.

“Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, today began a three-day trip to the Gulf region accompanied by a high-level delegation from the country”

BBC

Shafaqna says Saudi officials stated that Khashoggi left the building shortly after arriving, while his fiancée, waiting outside the consulate, said that Khashoggi never left the consulate.

BBC

CNN also reported that on Friday some Turkish officials who spoke to the Washington Post and Reuters indicated that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, while those officials had not yet released evidence or details.

The Washington Post wrote in a report from Turkey that Turkish sources say Jamal Khashoggi was killed by a ‘special kill team,’ and Turkey has concluded the killing happened last week inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a special kill team that had come from Saudi Arabia.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, began a three-day trip to the Gulf region accompanied by a high-level delegation, with meetings planned first with Saudi Arabia, then travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The BBC says the visits come after months of Turkey’s efforts to improve relations with its regional neighbors and are focused on large-scale economic deals, with Erdogan expected to sign multibillion-dollar contracts with the three Gulf states during the trip.

Haaretz

The BBC also links the diplomacy to the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, saying Erdogan then told that Khashoggi “was killed by a death squad sent from Riyadh” and that “It has been proven that his murder was premeditated.”

In the same BBC account, Erdogan is quoted before leaving Istanbul saying, “Bilateral trade with Gulf states has risen from $1.6 billion to about $22 billion in the last two decades, and we are looking for ways to push this figure to even higher levels.”

Tabnak says global media and especially some American outlets, including The Washington Post, have been at the forefront of the Khashoggi affair, and it quotes Elliott Abrams in The Washington Post arguing that the disappearance and reported murder “will cause many victims.”

“Jamal Khashoggi and his unknown fate are currently on the front pages of many media outlets around the world; the Saudi dissident journalist who, more than having anti-Saudi leanings, rebelled against Mohammed bin Salman and his actions; a rebellion and defiance that, it seems, will no longer exist”

تابناک

Tabnak adds that Abrams warned that if the Saudi government does not speak out quickly and take action and honestly confront the event, it will deal an irreparable blow to its own legacy.

The BBC reports that following the 2018 killing, Erdogan said the order to kill Khashoggi “came from the highest levels of the Saudi regime,” and it describes how relations deteriorated and led to unofficial sanctions on Turkish imports by Saudi Arabia.

In the same BBC account, it says trade between Turkey and Saudi Arabia grew rapidly after last summer’s Saudi crown prince visit to Turkey, and that in 2022 trade between them stood at about $6.5 billion.