Turkey seeks answers from Saudi Arabia on missing journalist

ANKARA, TURKEY >> A week after dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul for some routine paperwork, the mystery over his disappearance remains unresolved: Turkish officials allege he was killed in the compound; the Saudis say he left the building unharmed.

The case has alarmed human rights activists concerned over Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on dissent and strained already-tense relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The United States and other Saudi allies have taken a cautious approach toward Khashoggi’s disappearance, expressing concern but refraining from any strong comments against the oilrich kingdom.

“I am concerned about it. I don’t like hearing about it,” President Donald Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington from Florida. “And hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it.”

The 59-year-old contributor to the Washington Post spent last year in the U.S. in self-imposed exile after he fled Saudi Arabia amid a crackdown on intellectuals and activists who criticized the policies of Prince Mohammed. He was last seen by his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, entering the consulate to obtain a document needed for their marriage. She and Turkish officials say he never emerged, even though Saudi Arabia insists he left the building.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged the Saudis to back up their claim that Khashoggi left the consulate.

“Now when this person enters, whose duty is it to prove that he left or not? It is (the duty) of the consulate officials,” Erdogan said during a visit to Hungary. “Don’t you have cameras and other things? Why don’t you prove it, you have to prove it.”

Turkish officials have said the authorities believe that Khashoggi was most likely slain inside the consulate building and that his body was later removed from the premises, though they haven’t provided any evidence.

Turkey’s state-run news agency, quoting police, has said 15 Saudi nationals arrived in Istanbul on board two planes and were inside the consulate building when Khashoggi disappeared. The private DHA agency said the planes, which it identified as a two Gulfstream jets belonging to a Riyadh-based company that hires private aircraft, landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on the day Khashoggi vanished.

“With these departures and arrivals there were certain people who came from Saudi Arabia,” Erdogan said. “Our relevant agencies, our security forces, our intelligence agency, all of them, the foreign ministry — ‘work together’ and we’ll see the reports that our prosecutors prepare.”

Turkey summoned the Saudi ambassador Sunday to request the kingdom’s “full cooperation” in the investigation, a Foreign Ministry official said. The Turkish private NTV television said Ankara asked for permission for its investigators to search the consulate building, but a Foreign Ministry official would not confirm the report.

Ties between Ankara and Riyadh are at a low point over Turkey’s support for Qatar last year in its dispute with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. Turkey sent food to Qatar and deployed troops at its military base there. Saudi Arabia is also annoyed by Ankara’s rapprochement with its archrival, Iran.

“Turkey is maintaining a very delicate balance in its relations with Saudi Arabia. The relations have the potential of evolving into a crisis at any moment,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund’s Ankara office.

He expected a measured response from Turkey, which is suffering a currency crisis and would be reluctant to chase away investment from Saudi Arabia or other Gulf states. Ankara would likely wait and see what Washington’s reaction to the disappearance would be, before initiating any action against Saudi Arabia, Unluhisarcikli added.

The U.S. so far has said very little. Prince Mohammed has ties to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law to Trump, who visited Saudi Arabia on his first overseas trip. However, ties have been strained by the president’s recent comments implying Saudi Arabia wouldn’t last “two weeks” without U.S. guaranteeing its safety as global oil prices continue to rise.