Erdogan traveled to Saudi Arabia after 5 years.
The President of Turkey arrived in Jeddah on his first visit since 2017 and was welcomed by the Emir of Mecca.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday evening (April 28th) after five years.
According to the Al-Arabiya news website, Erdogan, who has not traveled to Saudi Arabia since 2017, arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and was welcomed by Khalid al-Faisal, the Emir of Mecca.
The Office of the President of the Republic of Turkey had previously announced that the visit would take place at the invitation of King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, Erdogan’s office said in a statement: “During the talks, all aspects of Turkish-Saudi relations and the steps needed to increase co-operation between the two countries will be discussed.”
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been strained since the assassination of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashgechi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
A US intelligence report released a year ago stated that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had confirmed Khashgechi’s assassination, but that the Saudi government had denied any involvement in the report.
Erdogan was a vocal critic of Khashgechi’s assassination, but Turkey responded earlier this month by deciding to hand over the trial of Khashgeji’s perpetrators to Saudi Arabia, one of Riyadh’s key demands for a rapprochement.
Middle East wrote some time ago that three and a half years after Saudi Arabia imposed a embargo on Turkish goods over the Khashkchi affair, the Saudi Crown Prince will try to use Erdogan’s visit as a lever to put an end to the Khashkchi affair.
“For Umbius (a pseudonym for the Saudi Crown Prince), everything is about Khashkchi,” an informed source told the news site a few days ago. He is obsessed with it. This (subject for him) is personal. “He personally blames Erdogan for the US intervention and for not ending the story in the first few days.”
