Erdogan, MBS embrace "new era” for Turkish-Saudi ties in Ankara

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a royal welcome from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a visit that Turkish officials say marks the full normalization of ties between the two regional powers. 

Following years of deep hostility over the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, “A new era will begin,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters news agency. The two leaders were expected to discuss bilateral investments in a range of areas including construction, energy and tourism and the possible sale of Turkey’s much vaunted killer drones to the Kingdom. 

The prince, commonly referred to as “MBS” is widely believed to have sanctioned the October 2018 killing and dismemberment of the Washington Post columnist by a team of hitmen flown to Istanbul. Much of the evidence pointing to his culpability was provided by Ankara to the United Nations and the United States. The CIA also concluded that the crown prince had engineered the murder. The UN said in a report that of the 15 killers, more than half were associated with the crown prince and his office. The crown prince denied any involvement and blamed the affair on rogue elements, who were then put on trial and sentenced to 20 years.

After initially seeking to make a deal with Erdogan, MBS imposed a de facto embargo on Turkish imports and banned flights to Turkey. With Turkey’s economy in dire straits and facing presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan began wooing the crown prince and finally landed a meeting with him in Riyadh last month — but not before handing over the trial in absentia of Khashoggi’s killers to a Saudi court. Turkey hopes to cement a currency swap deal to help shore up the sagging Turkish lira and Erdogan’s electoral fortunes.