Abdulhamit Gül
Turkey's justice minister on Thursday urged Saudi authorities to support the investigation into slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
After initially saying Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration admitted weeks later he had died there.
"We are looking for answers to the question of where the body is," Abdulhamit Gül told reporters during a joint news conference with his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Trocsany in Ankara.
"We expect the Saudi authorities to engage a close cooperation on this issue. They need to support in the form of cooperation in order to enlighten the whole incident," he added.
On Oct. 19, Saudi Arabia acknowledged that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi had died following a physical altercation with embassy officials. In an interview with FOX News, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir described Khashoggi’s “murder” as a “tremendous mistake,” but vehemently denied allegations that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered his death. Mohammed bin Salman reiterated al-Jubeir’s comments on Oct. 24, by describing Khashoggi’s murder as a “heinous crime,” and vowing to punish Saudi officials responsible for his killing.The perceived implausibility of the Saudi government’s official narrative on Khashoggi’s murder triggered widespread international criticism and caused major Western powers to openly debate the imposition of punitive economic measures against Saudi Arabia. The reaction of Saudi Arabia’s most important ally, the United States, has been followed particularly closely by Mohammed bin Salman and his political allies. The U.S. government’s initial response to Khashoggi’s murder was positively greeted in Saudi Arabia, as Trump emphasized the importance of arms contracts with Riyadh for job creation in the U.S. defense industry, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a cordial meeting with senior Saudi officials.Kazakh leader invites Saudi king, crown prince to visitThe Trump administration’s dovish reaction to Khashoggi’s death was widely criticized within the U.S. Congress. In the aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder, neoconservative Republicans like South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, aligned with prominent Democratic Party lawmakers in condemning the Saudi government’s involvement in Khashoggi’s death and questioning the future of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance. The emergence of a broad-based coalition of critics of Mohammed bin Salman within the U.S. Congress convinced the Trump administration to change course, by revoking visas against selected Saudi officials and considering sanctions against the perpetrators of Khashoggi’s murder.How can US pressure Saudi Arabia?While the impact of these actions on the U.S.- Saudi Arabia relations has thus-far been limited, the United States could exploit Saudi Arabia’s growing vulnerabilities and pressure Mohammed bin Salman in two main ways. First, the U.S. government could pressure Saudi Arabia to make a larger advance payment on its weapons deals with Washington, and use the threat of contract cancellations to spur Riyadh to action. Even though Saudi Arabia agreed to $110 billion in contracts with the United States in May 2017, only $14.5 billion of these deals has been confirmed by the Saudi government. Securing a larger advance payment from Saudi Arabia would provide more credibility for Trump’s arguments about Saudi Arabia’s economic importance to the United States, and also demonstrate that his rhetoric about Riyadh not paying the U.S. enough for defense is being matched with concrete action.Khashoggi murder outcry threatens US-Saudi ties, Saudi prince saysSecond, Trump could offer Saudi Arabia a quid-pro-quo that the United States will refrain from imposing punitive economic measures against Riyadh, if Mohammed bin Salman takes tangible steps towards normalizing relations with Qatar. Even though U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Saudi Arabia to end its blockade of Qatar in late April and included both countries in its Arab NATO plan to contain Iran, Riyadh has dismissed U.S. concerns about Gulf disunity. As Khashoggi’s murder has reinforced international concerns about Mohammed bin Salman’s destructive impulsivity, U.S. policymakers are in a strong position to convince Riyadh to ease tensions with Qatar, as doing so could help repair Saudi Arabia’s damaged reputation.Enhanced relations with China and Russia?The growing risk of U.S. punitive measures against Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s murder has caused some prominent analysts, like Al Arabiya General Manager Turki Aldakhil and the Eurasia Group’s Ayham Kamel, to call for a rebalance of Saudi foreign policy towards China and Russia. While this argument has diffused across the Saudi intellectual and business community, it has weak empirical foundations. Although China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trade partner, the Chinese Petrochemical Corporation has cut oil imports from Saudi Arabia over concerns about price manipulation and Chinese investors were frustrated by Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to suspend the Aramco IPO. There are also few prospects for enhanced China-Saudi Arabia defense cooperation, as Riyadh only purchased $20 million worth of Chinese arms in 2017, and Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen relies on U.S. technology.‘Turkey will not allow cover up,’ says ruling partyThe prospects for a marked improvement in Saudi Arabia-Russia relations are equally dim. On Oct. 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Trump’s unwillingness to criticize Mohammed bin Salman over Khashoggi’s murder, by arguing that it differed markedly from Washington’s immediate decision to implicate the Russian security services in Sergei Skripal’s poisoning. Although Putin corresponded with King Salman over Khashoggi’s murder on Oct. 25, lingering concerns about Saudi Arabia’s blockade against Qatar and doubts about the potential for a breach in the U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance could ultimately weaken the Moscow-Riyadh partnership.In the Middle East, the initial reactions to Khashoggi’s death sharpened regional polarizations. Saudi Arabia’s strongest allies, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, praised the Saudi government’s handling of the Khashoggi investigation; while its leading critics, Qatar, Iran and Turkey challenged the Saudi account. While Al Jazeera’s extensive unflattering coverage of Riyadh’s handling of the Khashoggi case and Turkey’s insistence that Mohammed bin Salman gave dishonest account of Khashoggi’s murder, could further strain both countries’ relations with Saudi Arabia, a spiral of escalation is not the only conceivable outcome.Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killingMBS’s efforts to deflect international opprobriumIn recent days, Mohammed bin Salman has departed from his traditionally aggressive approach to international criticism by praising Qatar’s economic model and directly discussing the Khashoggi case with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mohammed bin Salman’s unwillingness to further inflame tensions with Qatar and Turkey aims to showcase Saudi Arabia’s ability to act as a responsible stakeholder on the world stage, and deflect international criticisms of his foreign policy conduct.In addition to restricting damage to Saudi Arabia’s international image, Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to de-escalate tensions with Saudi Arabia’s regional rivals could also be aimed at assuaging growing frustrations with his leadership style amongst the Saudi royal family. One leading potential opponent of Mohammed bin Salman is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a business magnate arrested during last November’s anti-corruption crackdown, and a former employer of Khashoggi at the progressive Bahrain-based news outlet, Al-Arab News Channel. Another potential critic is Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, who directly blamed Mohammed bin Salman for Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen last month and possesses considerable legitimacy, as one of the only surviving sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud.In light of these dissenting views, Ahmad bin Abdulaziz's return to Riyadh on Oct. 31 poses a considerable challenge to Mohammed bin Salman's authority. The widely reported decision of the U.S. and British governments to provide security assurances to bin Abdulaziz suggests that Saudi Arabia's closest Western allies are grooming him as a critic who can act as a check on Mohammed bin Salman's impulsive actions on the world stage. Bin Abdulaziz's internal support base appears limited at first glance, as he was one of only three members of Saudi Arabia's allegiance council to oppose Mohammed bin Salman's selection as Crown Prince. However, the widely mooted existence of Khashoggi sympathizers within the elite establishment and his ties to Western powers make him arguably the greatest internal threat to Mohammed bin Salman.In spite of the influence wielded by these influential critics, their discontent is unlikely to pose a serious short-term threat to Mohammed bin Salman’s authority. The anti-corruption campaign caused no Saudi private businessmen to appear on March 2018’s Forbes Billionaires list. This attests to the diminished lobbying power of bin Talal and his allies within the Saudi private sector. Prince Turki al-Faisal, the unofficial leader of the Saudi royal family’s moderate wing, has also defended Mohammed bin Salman against allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder. Mohammed bin Salman also maintains firm control over Saudi Arabia’s security services and the absence of a vocal internal backlash against his dismissal of senior aide, Saud al-Qahtani, suggests that the Saudi Crown Prince’s internal position remains stable.Although the Saudi government continues to deny involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, the case has sparked fears of unprecedented U.S.-Saudi Arabia tensions and left Mohammed bin Salman scrambling to defend his tarnished international reputation. Despite these uncertainties, the atmosphere of fear created by Khashoggi’s murder and the absence of a realistic challenger to Mohammed bin Salman will likely ensure his continued dominance over Saudi politics for the foreseeable future.By Samuel Ramani, a DPhil candidate in International Relations at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is also a journalist who contributes regularly to The Washington Post and The Diplomat.
Khashoggi murder and House of Saud's future
Gül said despite written questions asked by Turkey's Chief Public Prosecutor's office, no answers have yet been received by the Saudi officials.
"We expect these questions to be answered as soon as possible. The Turkish judiciary will also deepen the investigation to answer these questions," he added.
Stating that the international issue cannot be covered up, the justice minister said the responsibility on the Khashoggi killing can not be avoided.
The outcry in the United States demonizing Saudi Arabia over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul threatens U.S.-Saudi strategic ties, the former Saudi intelligence minister warned on Wednesday."We value our strategic relationship with the United States and hope to sustain it. We hope the United States reciprocates in kind," royal family member Prince Turki bin Faisal al Saud said in an address to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, a non-profit advocacy organization.Turki, to whom Khashoggi once served as an adviser, has also served as an ambassador to London and Washington. His speech denouncing what he called "the demonization of Saudi Arabia" clearly carried Riyadh's imprimatur, as he heads an Islamic research center named after his father, the late King Faisal.‘Turkey will not allow cover up,’ says ruling partyTurki's address came after Istanbul's chief prosecutor on Tuesday said that Khashoggi was suffocated in a premeditated killing and his body was then dismembered.Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States, wrote columns for the Washington Post critical of the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Some U.S. lawmakers have accused the crown prince of ordering Khashoggi's death - a charge that Riyadh denies - and threatened sanctions. U.S. commentators have strongly condemned the kingdom.Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killingRecalling that more than 70 years of U.S.-Saudi ties survived previous crises, Turki said, "Nowadays, this relationship is once again threatened.""The tragic and unjustified" slaying of Khashoggi "is the theme of today's onslaught and demonization of Saudi Arabia in the same fashion as the previous crises. The intensity and gleefulness of it is equally unfair," he said. "Subjecting our relationship to this issue is not healthy at all."Turki reiterated that the kingdom is committed to bringing to justice those responsible for Khashoggi's murder "and whoever else failed to uphold the law."EU reiterates call for 'credible' probe into KhashoggiThe Trump administration is demanding full accountability from Riyadh in Khashoggi's death. In what it called a first step, it revoked the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in the slaying.The U.S.-Saudi relationship "is too big to fail," Turki said.Those ties, he noted, transcend oil production, trade, arms sales and investment to cooperation on Middle East peace efforts, stabilizing oil markets, fighting extremism and containing Iran, the kingdom's main regional foe. Khashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorCadaver dog used to search Saudi consulate denied entry into consul-general’s residence
Khashoggi murder outcry threatens US-Saudi ties, Saudi prince says
On questions whether the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor will visit Saudi Arabia as part of the Khashoggi probe, Gül said that it is "likely not happening because the incident occurred in Turkey."
"Without Turkey's questions are answered, I think it is not right to enter into a new stage," he added.
Istanbul chief prosecutor Irfan Fidan said after talks with Mojeb on Monday and Tuesday that Khashoggi was suffocated in a premeditated killing as soon as he entered the consulate, and his body was then dismembered and disposed of.
Investigation of the incident suggests a special hit squad came to the consulate to kill Kashoggi and cover up the murder. The international community refused to accept the Saudi claim that the incident was not a premeditated murder.
Turkey wants to know the whereabouts of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body, the country’s ruling party said on Wednesday.Khashoggi went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After initially saying Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration admitted weeks later he had died there."We want to know where the body [of Khashoggi] is, we want that our authorities receive information about who the local collaborators are", Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party, said at a news conference in Ankara.Khashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorSpeaking about the probe into the murder of Khashoggi, Çelik said it was "not an action to be performed without instructions from a higher level"."Turkey does not blame anyone in advance, but won't allow cover up of anything," he added.Investigation of the incident suggests a special hit squad came to the consulate to kill Kashoggi and cover up the murder.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that all details of the case should be revealed, including who gave the instruction for the "premeditated murder".U.S. President Donald Trump said he could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia, but also signaled that he did not want to harm bilateral relations.Telephoning Erdogan, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman promised necessary cooperation.The chief prosecutor's office in Riyadh also announced that the murder was planned.Cadaver dog used to search Saudi consulate denied entry into consul-general’s residenceTurkey's drilling activitiesÇelik said Turkish army is protecting the drilling ship "Fatih" in the Mediterranean and suggested Greece and Greek Cypriot administration to abstain from any attempt against it.Noting Turkey's gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean is being carried out on legal ground, he added: "The block 7 is in Turkey’s continental shelf."The block 7 is one of the blocks located in the unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone by the Greek Cypriot Administration and it wants to invite foreign energy firms for natural gas exploration.Çelik said any attempt from Greece to gradually widen its territorial waters will be “strongly” responded by Turkey.Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the latest initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. collapsing in 2017.Turkey blames Greek Cypriot intransigence for the talks' failure, also faulting the European Union for admitting Cyprus as a divided island into the union in 2004 after Greek Cypriot voters rejected a peace deal.Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killing
‘Turkey will not allow cover up,’ says ruling party
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed that all details of the case should be revealed, including who gave the instruction for the "premeditated murder".
U.S. President Donald Trump said he could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia, but also signaled that he did not want to harm bilateral relations.
Telephoning Erdoğan, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman promised necessary cooperation.
The chief prosecutor's office in Riyadh also announced that the murder was planned.
On Oct. 20, Arabic-language website alawatanews.com published a report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been forced out of power.Citing the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), it said King Salman had signed a decree removing the prince "against the backdrop of growing pressure that accompanies the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi."The report was false. The SPA has never published such an article, the wording and picture were lifted from a year-old royal court announcement about the removal of a former crown prince and MbS, as he is widely known, remains in his position.The story and the website that published it are part of a fierce information war being waged online over the killing of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government last seen entering Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.Automated accounts known as bots have flooded social media in recent weeks, many of them promoting messages which support Saudi Arabia and are intended to cast doubt on allegations that the kingdom was involved in Khashoggi's death.EU reiterates call for 'credible' probe into KhashoggiKhashoggi's body parts were disposed of after being dismembered: Turkish prosecutorBut another effort has also sought to muddy the waters more broadly, using fake news websites and associated bots to sow confusion about developments inside the Saudi government.Alawatanews.com is part of a network of at least 53 websites which, posing as authentic Arabic-language news outlets, have spread false information about the Saudi government and Khashoggi's murder, a Reuters analysis shows.Investigators at Israeli cybersecurity firm ClearSky said a review of host-server addresses and registration details showed the websites were operating as part of the same network. Many of them also have near-identical design layouts and web addresses, or have published the same or similar fake news reports.The alawatanews.com report, which said MbS had been replaced by his brother because of the fallout from Khashoggi's death, was typical of those articles. Another, published by a website called awwtarnews.com on Oct. 22, said an MbS aide had also been replaced for the same reason, which was not true.Saudi prosecutor discusses Khashoggi case with Turkish intelligenceAfter being published online, the false news articles were shared on Twitter by automated bot accounts -- many of which repeatedly posted links to multiple sites from the network.Twitter suspended the accounts shortly after receiving questions about them from Reuters. Alawatanews.com, awwtarnews.com, the Saudi government and SPA did not respond to requests for comment.A person called Mohammed Trabay with a registered address in Egypt is listed online as the owner and operator of the majority of the 53 websites. When reached by phone, a man who identified himself as Mohammed Trabay confirmed he was the owner of the websites but hung up when asked for further details.In subsequent emailed comments he denied any connection to the network and said he had not understood the questions when asked by phone."Sorry, I can't help you," he said. "I don't have any relation with the sites you mention."UN calls for impartial probe into Khashoggi’s killingSaudi Arabia's Electronic ArmyThe Saudi government initially said that it did not know what had happened to Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post, when he disappeared after entering its consulate in Turkey.Under pressure to say more about Khashoggi's fate, and following Turkey asserting that he had been killed, Riyadh later changed its version of events to say he had died in a fight in the Istanbul consulate.When that statement was also widely questioned, Riyadh offered a new explanation, blaming Khashoggi's death on a premeditated "rogue operation" in which Saudi individuals exceeded their authority.U.S. President Donald Trump has said Saudi authorities staged the "worst cover-up ever" but has also made more conciliatory remarks that highlight Riyadh's role as a U.S. ally against Iran and Islamist militants, as well as a purchaser of U.S. arms.Online, the journalist's death has served to show how governments and people are increasingly able to manipulate information and social media to further their political agendas, said Lisa-Maria Neudert, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, a department of Oxford University."Setting up misinformation pages purporting to be real news, leveraging highly divisive and controversial current issues, and using fake accounts and personas to conceal the originators of attacks are somewhat of the ABCs of computational propaganda," she said.At the centre of Saudi Arabia's online efforts is Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide to the Crown Prince who was hired in the early 2000s to run an electronic media army tasked with protecting Saudi Arabia's image, according to a source with ties to the royal court.When Riyadh led an economic boycott against Qatar in June 2017, Qahtani was at the forefront of online attacks against the small Gulf state. On Twitter, he urged Saudis to tweet the names of anyone showing sympathy with Qatar under the Arabic hashtag "The Black List".Qahtani was sacked on Oct. 20 over allegations that he was involved in Khashoggi's murder. A senior Saudi official said he had authorised one of his subordinates to conduct what was meant to be a negotiation for Khashoggi's return to Saudi Arabia. Qahtani did not respond to questions from Reuters at the time.Saudi authorities have not disclosed whether or not he is in detention and the status of his "flies", as his electronic army is known, is unclear. The Saudi authorities did not respond to a request for comment.Opponents of the Saudi authorities have also been active online. Facebook and other companies identified a suspected Iranian influence operation in August which used a network of sham news sites and fake social media personas to spread disinformation, some of it targeted at Saudi Arabia. Iranian officials have dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous".Washington Post awaits answers on Khashoggi murderMystery PerpetratorTwitter said it has removed large numbers of accounts for breaching its terms of use over the last two weeks, many of them originating from the Gulf region."Targeted platform manipulation and coordinated spam are a violation of the Twitter Rules and we will continue to enforce our policies vigorously," a Twitter spokesman said.Reuters has found such bot accounts and influential Saudi users repeatedly posting hashtags on Twitter including "Qatari intelligence kills Khashoggi" and "Saudi Arabia the greatest," although it found no evidence Qahtani or the Saudi government controlled or directed those accounts.Saudi Arabia's biggest online newspaper Sabq has also accused the international media, including Reuters, of using Khashoggi's disappearance to try to undermine the government, and released a statement on Oct. 21 saying a fake news story was being circulated under its name.The websites identified by Reuters as spreading false news about the Saudi government have operated as part of the same network since 2017, said ClearSky analyst Ohad Zaidenberg.Video: First-ever misinformation news-stand opened in New YorkAll bar three of the websites have been taken down, although it is not clear who dismantled the network, when or why, said Zaidenberg, who previously tracked online influence campaigns for Israel's elite 8200 intelligence unit.But the sites which are still online, as well as archived copies of those which are now disabled, provide an insight into the network's operations and aims -- to undermine the official Saudi version of events and spread confusion around its government."Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the main powers in the Middle East. Accordingly, many operators of fake news infrastructure target the Saudi Arabian audience with increasing frequency," Zaidenberg said, adding that a perpetrator could not be identified at this stage.Web-hosting and support companies Hetzner, GoDaddy and Cloudflare all declined to give any information about the websites' operator, citing client confidentiality. 
Fake news network vs bots: the online war around Khashoggi killing