Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in a bid to improve ties that have taken a dramatic downward turn following the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. During his visit, Erdoğan met with Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).
Before his departure to the Gulf monarchy, Erdoğan said that he hopes to usher in a “new era of cooperation.” Remarking that Ramadan is a month of “revitalising and consolidating the ties of solidarity, friendship and brotherhood,” he said that Turkey wants to resolve regional problems through “dialogue and diplomacy, and bring an end to conflicts.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives to Saudi Arabia on an official visit. He was greeted at the Jeddah airport by the Governor of Mecca Prince Khalid al Faisal.
— Mohammed Alyahya محمد اليحيى (@7yhy) April 28, 2022
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The visit was Erdoğan’s first visit to the Kingdom since 2017, a year before Khashoggi was killed. Turkey-Saudi relations have been fractured since Khashoggi was killed in 2018, when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée. The Saudi government, which initially denied any role in his murder, later claimed that he was killed by a team of rogue agents from the Kingdom.
Erdoğan even called the killing of Khashoggi “a serious threat to the international order” and suggested the killings were conducted by agents of a “shadow state” in Saudi Arabia. Turkey said that 26 Saudi agents were responsible for the murder and launched a case in absentia against the suspects.
Erdogan as he is leaving after visiting the interior of Kaaba in Mecca, only open for head of states, Saudi royal family and clergymen pic.twitter.com/zFJdqWX9Zq
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) April 29, 2022
However, a Turkish court decided to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia earlier this month, in a major sign of rapprochement.
Erdoğan met with MBS at the Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah to discuss ways to improve relations and “opportunities for developing them in various fields.” The Saudi Press Agency said the pair “discussed the latest regional and international developments and the exerted efforts towards them,” but did not elaborate on what they talked about.
Prior to his visit, however, the Turkish President said that the stability and security of the Gulf are of great priority to Turkey. “In the current era of increasingly more sophisticated threats, dialogue and cooperation are imperative for the security and stability of our entire region,” Erdoğan said.
In this regard, he condemned the drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saudi Arabia. “I underline at every opportunity that we oppose terror in all its forms, particularly stressing the importance we attach to cooperation with the countries in our region against terror,” the President said.
“Erdogan was isolated and paid a high economic price which is why he is the one coming to Saudi. Both countries stand to benefit, he added, as Erdogan “needs the trade and tourism flows from Saudi+Saudi would prefer to have him ‘on side’ and may be open to buy arms from Turkey.”
— Ali Shihabi علي الشهابي (@aliShihabi) April 28, 2022
Erdoğan also held talks with Saudi King Salman at the Al-Salam palace to discuss cooperation in healthcare, energy, food security, agriculture, defence, and finance.
Apart from Saudi Arabia, Turkey has in fact been seeking to improve relations with countries across the region. In February, Erdoğan visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed. The Turkish delegation signed 13 agreements in the fields of defence, trade, climate change, industry, and the economy. Like with Saudi Arabia, ties between Ankara and Abu Dhabi have also been strained in recent years.
▶️ Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman on April 28, 2022, after arriving for the first high-level visit in years.
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) April 29, 2022
👉Erdogan Goes to Riyadh to Seal Rapprochement https://t.co/u0BWRGkx6u pic.twitter.com/HYPLJvGOy0
Turkey and the UAE have clashed over regional conflicts in the Middle East. In the Libyan civil war that began in 2014, mercenaries from Turkey and the UAE fought against each other. Similarly, in Syria, Turkey has accused the UAE of supporting the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey views as terrorist organisations. The Gulf country, on the other hand, criticised Turkey’s support of Qatar during the 2017 Gulf Cooperation Council crisis between Doha and the rest of the Arab world.
Turkey’s change in attitude was also seen when Erdoğan hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog in March and agreed to completely normalise ties despite several longstanding disputes. Furthermore, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is also set to visit Israel in May.