Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is going to Riyadh on Thursday April 28 on an official visit, for the first time since the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. This visit aims to seal the reconciliation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. President Erdogan hopes in particular to derive economic benefits from it.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
At the beginning of April, Turkey granted one of the main Saudi requests before welcoming President Erdogan to Riyadh: to bury the Khashoggi affair, the trial of the murder of the journalist murdered in October 2018 in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
Turkish justice, at the request of the government, transferred the case to the Saudi authorities, despite protests from relatives of Jamal Khashoggi, in particular his Turkish fiancée.
This gesture made it possible to lift the last reluctance of Riyadh, in particular that of Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman, whom Ankara had implicated in the assassination. The latter should be part of the delegation which will receive the Turkish president, expected for an interview with King Salman.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is counting on this reconciliation – like those undertaken with the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Egypt – to contribute to the recovery of the Turkish economy, shaken by inflation of more than 60% over one year. Under an informal boycott, Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia had fallen by more than 90% since the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
►Read again: Turkey transfers the Khashoggi file to Saudi Arabia, his fiancée appeals