Turkey is the main focus of global attention Tuesday ahead of a planned statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he has promised to reveal the “naked truth” about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
On Sunday, the Turkish president said he would make all the necessary statements about the killing of Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi royal family, at a meeting with members of his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday.
“We are looking for justice here and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth,” Erdogan said.
The promise to reveal more information comes after weeks of investigations by Turkish officials into the death of Khashoggi, and an international outcry over his disappearance.
Erdogan’s statement comes on the same day as Saudi Arabia launches its Future Investment Initiative (FII), an investment conference in Riyadh, on Tuesday. Many notable attendants and media organizations pulled out of the event following Khashoggi’s disappearance, and the kingdom’s political and business ties with the West appear more fragile.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday morning that Turkey will cooperate with any international investigation into Khashoggi’s death. He said that the country had not yet shared any information with any country on the Khashoggi case yet, however, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia had initially denied reports of his death but did a U-turn on Friday and confirmed that the 59-year-old Saudi dissident had in fact died in a fight within their consulate in Istanbul. This disputes claims from Turkish officials who told The New York Times that they have audio evidence which proves Khashoggi was tortured, killed and subsequently dismembered by a hit team of Saudi agents.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told Fox News Sunday that the death of Khashoggi was “a huge and grave mistake.” He said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had no prior knowledge of what had happened.
Khashoggi was a prominent member of Saudi society but, living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. he had criticized the crown prince in his columns for the Washington Post. Khashoggi went missing on October 2 after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in order to collect paperwork for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee.
Saudi Arabia claimed for weeks that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive but Turkish officials have consistently refuted that claim.
Claims about the existence of audio recordings that corroborate Turkey’s allegations have been a fixture of news reports about Khashoggi’s death. The U.S. requested that evidence from Turkey but whether it was shared or not is unknown.
The U.S. is seen as a staunch ally and business partner of Saudi Arabia and, as such, it is being closely watched to see how it will react to developments in the investigation.
President Donald Trump had at first said that he found the Saudi version of events credible, but as international incredulity has been expressed, Trump has since said that the Saudi explanation for Khashoggi’s death was not good enough. “I am not satisfied until we find the answer,” Trump told reporters this weekend.
