Without the shadow of a doubt, Saudi Arabia naively played into the hands of its regional rival, Turkey, by its brazen killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Turkey embassy. Not surprisingly, Turkish president Erdogan today came out with all guns blazing as he launched a blistering attack on the Saudi kingdom.
According to the Turkish leader, Jamal Khashoggi's 'savage' murder was pre-planned by a Saudi hit squad who disabled CCTV at the Istanbul consulate before killing the writer and giving his body to a local fixer. He added that there were strong signs that a Saudi team plotted to kill the dissident journalist days before his death on October 2.
Mr Erdogan also questioned why Khashoggi's corpse had yet to be discovered and called on Saudi Arabia to reveal the identity of a 'local cooperator' who purportedly took the body. He called the killing a political murder.
Saudi Arabia had earlier revealed that 18 Saudis were arrested and that several top intelligence officials were fired over the killing. However, critics were quick to allege that the punishment was designed to absolve Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's heir-apparent, of any responsibility.
Hear president Erdogan :
'To blame such an incident on a handful of security and intelligence members would not satisfy us or the international community.
'Saudi Arabia has taken an important step by admitting the murder. As of now we expect of them to openly bring to light those responsible - from the highest ranked to the lowest - and to bring them to justice.
'All evidence gathered shows that Jamal Khashoggi was the victim of a savage murder. To cover up such a savagery would hurt the human conscience.'
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