From: U.S. Department of State Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 1:36 AM To: VedatCole , Onder Ozar,, Turkish Forum World Turkish Alliance Subject: Sanctioning the Government of Turkey in Response to the Ongoing Military Offensive in Northeast Syria
Sanctioning the Government of Turkey in Response to the Ongoing Military Offensive in Northeast Syria
Press Statement
Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State
October 14, 2019
On Friday, the United States signaled its intent to take action in response to Turkey’s ongoing unilateral military offensive in northeast Syria. President Donald J. Trump has now signed an Executive Order to press Turkey to halt its military offensive against northeast Syria and adopt an immediate ceasefire. The Executive Order gives the Department of Treasury and the Department of State, the authority to consider and impose sanctions on individuals, entities, or associates of the Government of Turkey involved in actions that endanger civilians or lead to the further deterioration of peace, security, and stability in northeast Syria. Three senior Turkish officials, the Ministry of Energy, and the Ministry of Defense have been designated for sanctions under these authorities, concurrent with the signing of the Executive Order.
As the President has made clear, Turkey’s actions in northeast Syria severely undermine the D-ISIS campaign, endanger civilians, and threaten the security of the entire region. If Turkey’s operation continues, it will exacerbate a growing and daunting humanitarian crisis, with potentially disastrous consequences. To avoid suffering further sanctions imposed under this new Executive Order Turkey must immediately cease its unilateral offensive in northeast Syria and return to a dialogue with the United States on security in northeast Syria.
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Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Office of the Spokesperson The Secretary of State Syria Turkey
The morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Trump withdraws U.S. forces from northern Syria, and administration scrambles to respond
“This is total chaos,” a senior administration official said on a day when Cabinet secretaries denied that the United States had “abandoned” its Syrian Kurdish allies to invading Turkish forces.
By Karen DeYoung, Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan and Kareem Fahim ● Read more »
Democrats and Republicans on Oct. 13 criticized President Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from positions in northern Syria. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
By Seung Min Kim and
Josh Dawsey
October 13 at 10:46 PM
President Trump’s order to withdraw essentially all U.S. forces from northern Syria came after the commander in chief privately agitated for days to bring troops home, according to administration officials — even while the Pentagon was making public assurances that the United States was not abandoning its Kurdish allies in the region.
The officials, granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations, described Trump as “doubling down” and “undeterred,” despite vociferous pushback from congressional Republicans who have been loath to challenge the president apart from a few issues, such as national security.
Behind the scenes, Trump has tried to convince advisers and lawmakers that the United States is not to blame for Turkey’s military offensive, which has targeted Kurdish fighters who have aided the U.S. fight against the Islamic State.
But experts — and many Republicans — say otherwise. And even Trump allies say the president needs to do a better job of selling the troop withdrawal to the public, beyond tweets.
The escalating crisis in northern Syria has prompted further criticism from foreign policy heavyweights in Trump’s party, who argue that the president’s strategies abroad send a concerning message to allies and endanger regional partners.
“I’ve always looked at the approach the administration takes as very transactional and very short-term in nature,” former senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a phone interview Sunday. “It’s almost seeking headlines for the very next day, but not really thinking through the longer-term impact on our country.”
In a tweet and later in the interview, Corker warned against the decision to withdraw support for Kurdish forces, telling The Post that it was a “blight on our character.” He said, too, that it would only embolden Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has given no indication that he would halt the offensive that began Wednesday despite the threat of sanctions from the U.S. Congress and international condemnation.
“To pull the rug out and to do so in such a hasty manner, where there’s been no preparation, nothing has been done to limit the damage to them, and as [former defense secretary Jim] Mattis and others have said, this is going to create additional activities, additional opportunities for ISIS . . . it’s bad all the way around,” said Corker, who has remained relatively quiet since he left office in January.
Such criticisms have been echoed publicly and privately by current Republican elected officials who have been increasingly alarmed by the withdrawal, announced in a late-night White House statement on Oct. 6 and fully fleshed out by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on Sunday.
Trump has closely watched that kind of public criticism in recent days — complaining frequently about comments from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in particular — but has been encouraged to stay the course by other allies who support a withdrawal, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, according to administration officials.
The president, one senior administration official said, was particularly heartened by a segment from another Fox News host, Lou Dobbs, defending him last week.
A U.S. soldier sits atop an armored vehicle in Syria’s Hasakeh province near the Turkish border on Oct. 6. (Delil Souleiman/Afp Via Getty Images)
For his part, Graham appeared to be more aligned with Trump on Sunday evening, saying that he planned to work with Democratic and Republican lawmakers on economic sanctions against Turkey.
“The outrage in Syria about Turkey continues. The ripple effect I was concerned about has happened at a faster pace than I believed. The administration needs to be far more aggressive,” Graham said in an interview.
Graham and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have drafted legislation that would place sanctions on the U.S. assets of people at the highest levels of the Turkish government, including Erdogan, as well as on any military transactions with Turkey.
The two are circulating their plan among Senate offices.
Graham and Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) have also asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to arrange a briefing from the Pentagon and State Department, as well as intelligence officials, on the withdrawal.
An aide to Schumer deferred to the majority leader’s office, although Schumer has said that he wants Esper; Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of U.S. Central Command, to appear publicly before senators. A spokesman for McConnell said Sunday that he had no announcements to make. A private briefing could help shape the congressional response, as could a closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Syria scheduled for Thursday morning.
Some Republican donors and officials worried that Trump’s decision would trap them in an untenable situation and have deleterious effects around the world. Furthermore, the significant intraparty rift is coming at a time when Trump particularly needs Republican support as he faces the threat of impeachment.
“Republican senators are going to increasingly resemble a herd of ostriches with their heads in the sand,” said Dan Eberhart, a prominent Republican donor. “They don’t want to break with Trump while simultaneously wanting to disagree with his policy on allowing Turkey to get away with exterminating the Kurds inside Syria.”
Still, Trump has resisted the repeated urging from some of his closest allies to intervene in the situation and has become more convinced that bringing troops home is both the right decision and a key political promise to fulfill ahead of the 2020 election.
That view has been reinforced by the reaction from supporters. At a campaign rally in Minneapolis last week, the crowd chanted “Bring them home!” as Trump noted that U.S. troops had been in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history — for nearly two decades.
During deliberations in the past, Trump has repeatedly pushed to remove troops from Syria but has usually been dissuaded by top officials, such as John F. Kelly, his former chief of staff.
The usual argument against removing troops, according to former senior administration officials, would be that doing so would cause widespread deaths and chaos and Trump would be blamed for it.
“Normally, convincing him he would be blamed for death and chaos could keep it from happening at least at that moment,” one former senior administration official said.
But current administration officials say many moderating officials like Kelly are gone, and longtime friends say the move is consistent with Trump’s worldview — and that he has long wanted to do this.
“When he looks at a conflict, he’ll say, do we have a national interest? What is our national interest?” said Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally. “A secondary thing is the money issue. Why are we spending billions, if not trillions, in places like Afghanistan and the Middle East?”
Corker also suggested that the president’s decision was swayed by a circle of current advisers putting “un-thought-out ideas in the president’s head.”
“I just have known through my years there that so many people have access to the president,” Corker said, declining to name them. “Typically, you want the people who are giving input to have credentials and have knowledge of the area, but I know that’s not the case necessarily today.”
Some Trump allies were urging him to do more. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, who regularly speaks with Trump and has been a candidate for positions in the past, said he should quickly enforce a no-fly zone and warn Turkish officials that there would be retaliation.
Keane said international allies had flooded the State Department with concerns about trusting the United States.
“All is not lost,” he said. But not doing anything, he said, “sends a message about trust and reliability, something the United States has taken some pride in since World War II, that we can be counted on.”
President Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on Oct. 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Nancy Gibbs
Oct. 11, 2019 at 5:10 p.m. EDT
Nancy Gibbs, a former managing editor of Time, is the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
With each passing day, President Trump flaunts his great and unmatched wisdom and so invites us to play armchair, arm’s-length therapists. So let me float an untested theory about what is unfolding before our eyes. And then let’s test it.
This picture taken Saturday near the Syrian border town of Kobane shows a U.S. observation post where the Pentagon said U.S. troops came under Turkish artillery fire on Friday. (OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)
By Dan Lamothe
October 12 at 6:07 PM
Turkish forces who launched multiple artillery rounds near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in northeastern Syria on Friday have known for months that Americans were there, according to four current and former U.S. officials, raising questions whether Turkey is trying to push American troops farther from the border.
The incident occurred on a hilltop base overlooking the town of Kobane as Turkey continues an operation launched Tuesday against Syrian Kurds, some of whom the United States has partnered with for years in its campaign against the Islamic State. The incursion has focused on an area 60 miles to the west of Kobane, but U.S. officials believe Turkey has long-term aspirations to control a much larger swath of Syria.
The rounds landed about 9 p.m. within a few hundred yards of the base on Mistenur Hill, U.S. officials said. Navy Capt. Brook DeWalt, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that the U.S. troops “came under artillery fire” but were unharmed and that there was an explosion.
“The U.S. demands that Turkey avoid actions that could result in immediate defensive action,” DeWalt said.
In a statement issued Friday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said its troops had not fired on the Americans and were acting “in self-defense” after one of their border posts was attacked.
But the situation, first reported by Newsweek, was more serious than characterized Friday, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Before U.S. troops pulled out of northern Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish invasion, The Post went there and met Kurds who feared the looming assault. (Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)
One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a “bracketing effect” in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.
“That’s an area weapon,” the officer said, noting its explosive effects. “That’s not something we ever would have done to a partner force.”
The officer said Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media.
“We had been there for months, and it is the most clearly defined position in that entire area,” the officer said.
Brett McGurk, a former special envoy for both the Obama and Trump administrations in the campaign against the Islamic State, raised concerns about the incident Friday, saying on Twitter that the United States had declared the position to Turkey.
“This was not a mistake,” he said.
McGurk, who often collaborated with the U.S. military in Syria before resigning his position in December, emphasized the increasing risks to Americans throughout Syria in an email Saturday.
“Turkey wants us off the entire border region to a depth of 30 kilometers,” or about 20 miles, he said. “Based on all the facts available, these were warning fires on a known location, not inadvertent rounds.”
Turkey launched its operation into Syria on Tuesday, two days after President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue in a phone call and the White House announced that the United States would not stand in Turkey’s way. Trump, explaining his decision, said Monday that he wants to end “endless wars” in the Middle East.
The move immediately raised concerns that the United States was abandoning Syrian Kurds, who have been the closest U.S. partner in counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State. The Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, has formed the backbone of U.S. efforts in northeastern Syria and collaborated with U.S. troops, but Turkey considers the group to be part of a Kurdish movement, the PKK, that it deems a terrorist organization.
Turkey said in its statement that it opened fire after Kurdish forces launched rounds at them but stopped when the United States warned that the rounds were too close. U.S. officials confirmed Saturday that the firing ended after U.S. forces contacted the Turks, but some questioned whether the Kurdish were involved at all.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Friday they would not abandon the Kurds but acknowledged the Pentagon has withdrawn forces from Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn in response to Turkey’s incursion between the two border towns.
Turkey appears to have aspirations to push the United States away from Kobane, as well, several officials said. The Army officer with knowledge of Syria said Turkish forces previously have launched artillery over the border near U.S. forces.
Milley, speaking Friday at the Pentagon shortly before the incident outside Kobane, said the Turkish military “is fully aware, down to explicit grid coordinate detail,” of the location of U.S. troops in Syria. He said senior U.S. military officials are coordinating with the Turks “to make sure that they know exactly where American forces are.”
Another U.S. defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the Pentagon “obviously” told Turkey where U.S. troops are and “they certainly [went] closer than we would have liked” in the incident outside Kobane.
“Whether that’s intentional or reckless, either way it’s troubling,” the official said.
To: Fox News … October 10, 2019 To: President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA From: Dr. Robert B. McKay, robtmckay @msn.com
Advisor to Turkish Forum & Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman, Founder/ President of Turkish Forum.
Fox News:
FNWHD Hemmer/Smith constantly states “Turkey Attacking U.S. Ally”, However, it is Turkey who has been the longest and best ally of the USA, not the Kurds:
Turkey is our partner. The Kurdish PKK has been declared a terrorist organization
by the United Nations and has killed over 30,000 Turks. Kurds have done little to help
the USA compared to Turkey. Kurdish interests are self serving for territorial gain.
Turkish troops in Korea …. provided troops in the Korean conflict: The Turks stayed
behind and took the loses for our men to escape. Turkey was our greatest ally in the
Cold War against Russia; Submarine monitoring of Russia from the Black Sea, the
U-2 airplane kept at the Incirlik Air Base near Adana, our spy stations in Samsun our
nuclear capabilities for quick strikes against Russia and/or China and our air bases
in Turkey.
It is foolish, and irresponsible for Fox News not to recognize Turkey as our long
time friend. Furthermore, Turkey, like the USA has an OBLIGATION to protect its
national and territorial interests…which for many decades have been under Kurdish
attack!!!
Characterizing Turkey as an enemy (by omission of facts) can only make Turkey
seek other friends or, at the least create further friction in a part of the world where
more came is needed.
Recent guests on Fox News, who are intelligent people but who do not exhibit a
strong historical knowledge of Turkey’s role have included Niki Haley, General
Pittard and retired Major General Malcolm Frost.
Sarah Sanders has been the first person on Fox to correctly acknowledge the
difficulties when two of our friends are having a dispute between themselves.
We will see Turkey solve the problem of Kurdish terrorism, for the sole reason
of protecting itself from attack: as President Trump has correctly forecast.
Most importantly thousands of Kurds, even today live peacefully in Turkey. This
peace will continue when the nationalistic Kurds of Syria give up their attempt to
annex parts of Eastern Turkey to create a new expanded Kurdish State.
Since the time of Ataturk after WWI Turkey has never had territorial aspirations..
except to live in their own homes—in peace: nothing has changed-except Turkey is
housing three and one half million (3.5 m) refugees displaced by the U.S. war on ISIS.
Copy: Honorable Serdar Kilic: Turkish Ambassador to the USA: Serdar.Kilic @MFA.gov.tr
President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA: djtrump @Trumporg.com
Foxnews.com
Senator Lindsay Graham: Fax 202-224-5972
Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman: Founder/President Turkish Forum: kbuyukataman @gmail.com
Mr. HikmetAslan,PresidentTurkishAmericanAssociation:SNETACA; aslanct @yahoo.com
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receptayyip.erdogan @baskanlik.gov.tr
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; cimer @cumhurbaskanligi.gov.tr
Dr. Robert B McKay is The Advisor to Turkish Forum in Armenian, Kurdish and Cyprus issues since 1993
Dr Robert B. McKay has spend many years in Turkey and Taught in Tarsus American College with His Wife Lorraine McKay , Their Three children were Born in Turkey.
NATO Ally of the Republic of Turkey Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds.
Turkey is not and has not been against the Kurdish people. Such smear campaigns have only become another weapon in the international platform to delegitimize Turkey. The fact of the matter is Turkey is against terrorist organization like the Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns,missiles pointed at Turkey.
What would Israel do ? ,
What would US do ? ,
What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security ?
I thank The State of Hungary and The State of Spain for not signing EU declaration against Turkish Actions to protect its citizens and national security and I hope many other nations will join them this week.
Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman
…………………………………………………………………………………
COMMENTS ,, SEFER OZDEMIR ,,
“Good Kurds” (show original) 9:32 PM (1 hour ago)
Legitimizing Terrorists Whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,”
How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?
It is extremely disturbing to read an articles and ones who are sympathetic toward one of the world’s most infamous and deadly terrorist groups, the PKK /YPG . Articles have been floated to serve as a propaganda instrument for the PKK and YPG , which is declared a terrorist organization by not only by the United States but the European Union and others.
PKK / YPG terrorist , are portrayed in many articles as humane fighters in an epic struggle against ISIS , The truth is the group has has committed acts of brutal terror that have cost the lives of tens of thousands of Turkish citizens, Syrian Citizens and Araps , among them teachers, engineers, villagers, women and children. Articles begin floated declaring Turkey in attacking Kurds in Syria, Do not speak the truth on was is taking place on the ground but are only Fake News with ones who have an alternative motives . There is now the tendency of depicting PKK/ YPG as if they represent the Kurds as glorious heroes, given how they have been portrayed in our media in the fight against ISIS, turning a blind eye to the Kurds own excesses, and as victims, given the negative image of the Turks in our media. Kurdish-Turks are often portrayed as suffering from discrimination or oppression, which seeks to explain or partly justify the PKK /YPG , when the reality is Turkey’s Kurds are equal under the Turkish Constitution and regional Kurds reject the PKK/ YPG . How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?
Articles may choose to whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “militant group,” but our country, Israel and others have designated the PKK /YPG as a terrorist group. Notice how our prior Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter confirmed not only the YPG’s ties to the PKK, but the PKK’s terrorist nature, 45 seconds into 2016’s “Graham: ‘Hope is not a strategy’”
Turkeys current cross border Operation peace spring Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds. Turkey has taken step to protect her National interest against a terrorist organization Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns, missiles pointed at Turkey. Kurdish PKK/ YPG finding shelter in Northern Syria or Northern Iraq and the ones who harbor or to continue to legitimizing Terrorists or whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,” whether their support is active or passive is irrelevant, for there are no acceptable levels of support for terror. Nor is it responsible to undercut the security of a long-term NATO ally like Turkey. Until all terrorist are expelled from Turkeys broader the fight against terror will continue. As I always ask ?
What would Israel do? What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security?
…………………………………………………………………………..
COMMENTS: YURDAGUL ATUN
Member since 1/9/16yurdagulbeyoglu (yurdagulbeyoglu @hotmail.com) Ynt: [Turkish Forum – eturkiyeyiz.biz] “Good Kurds” (show original) 2:26 AM (2 hours ago) Merhaba değerli arkadaşlar. Harekatla ilgili olarak, daha önce yaşanan vahşet fotoğrafları dünyaya “Türk askeri yapmış gibi” servis ediliyor. Bizlerin de buna karşı elimizden geldiğince karşı atak yapmamız gerek. Propagandanın en eski savaş taktiği olduğundan hareketle yetkililere tavsiyem, teknolojik aletlere ve yabancı dillere hakim kişilerden oluşan bir sosyal medya grubu oluşturarak, bu algı operasyonunu çürütmeleri. Tabi bunu bizler de -küçük boyutta da olsa- yapabiliriz. Aşağıdaki yazıda olduğu gibi. Lütfen twiterden veya diğer sosyal medya mecralarından Türk askerini kötüleyen, PKK’yı masum gösteren tweetlere karşı sizler de birşey yazınız. Devede kulak da olsa mesajımızın yerine ulaşması çok önemli. “Biz nasıl olsa haklıyız” diyerek meydanı boş bıraktık, şimdi bunun cezasını çekiyoruz. Saygılarımla Yurdagül Atun
17 yıldır bütün hesaplar Bağdat’tan dönüyor ve biz yanlış ve hezimetlerden ders almamak hususunda inatla direniyoruz…
Turkey: Ergodan Has Badly Overplayed His Hand in the Khashoggi Affair
by Con Coughlin • October 5, 2019 at 5:00 am
§ Mr Erdogan, who has been the main driving force behind efforts to cause the Saudis maximum discomfort, now has an abundance of problems of his own, challenges which could spell the end of his 16-years in charge. After Mr Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party lost badly in last April’s mayoral election for control of Istanbul, the Turkish leader now finds himself trying desperately to salvage Turkey’s battered economy, where the currency is in free fall, foreign debts remain vast, and inflation and joblessness are alarmingly high.
§ Many Turks blame their country’s plight on Mr Erdogan’s obsession with pursuing his radical Islamist agenda, which includes supporting groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
§ Many prefer him to concentrate instead on addressing their domestic concerns, a view the Turkish president would be well-advised to take on board if he intends to remain in power.
If Mr Erdogan’s aim throughout this process was to cause the Saudi Crown Prince maximum embarrassment, the ploy has failed miserably. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
A year after the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, attempts by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to exploit the controversy to boost his own political standing have back-fired.
Ever since Mr Khashoggi was murdered moments after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October last year to obtain documentation for his forthcoming marriage, Mr Erdogan has skilfully exploited the incident to cause maximum embarrassment to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he regards as one of his major regional rivals.
Ankara has been at loggerheads with Riyadh ever since the Muslim Brotherhood, a key ally of Mr Erdogan, came to power in Egypt in 2012, a move bitterly resisted by the Saudis, who regard the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
Indeed, one of the reasons the Saudis targeted Mr Khashoggi in the first place was because of his close links with the Brotherhood, as well as his close relationship with Qatar, the Gulf state that is bitterly opposed to the Saudi royal family and is one of the Brotherhood’s most important backers.
Khashoggi’s gruesome fate was very much the consequence of this complex web of bitter regional rivalries between prominent Muslim leaders, so that when a team of Saudi assassins carried out their plot to silence Khashoggi’s high profile criticism of the Saudi regime — his columns regularly appeared in the Washington Post, among other prominent publications — Mr Erdogan responded by doing everything in his power to orchestrate an international campaign denouncing the Saudi crown prince.
Thus, in the immediate aftermath of the Khashoggi killing, the Turkish authorities oversaw a steady drip-feed of revelations about the murder that were acquired as a result of numerous bugging devices that had been placed in the Saudi consulate by Turkish intelligence. Turkish efforts to maintain their anti-Saudi public relations offensive have continued right up until the first anniversary of his death, which fell earlier this week, with new, even more graphic, details of how Mr Khashoggi met his end being made available to Western media organisations such as the BBC, which this week broadcast a programme claiming to have the “secret” tapes of Khashoggi’s last moments.
If Mr Erdogan’s aim throughout this process was to cause the Saudi Crown Prince maximum embarrassment, then, to judge by the way Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is conducting himself, the ploy has failed miserably.
There was, of course, much speculation in the immediate aftermath of the affair that MbS, as the Saudi Crown Prince is universally known, might be removed from his position over claims that he was personally responsible for ordering the murder, which was very much the line being pushed by Mr Erdogan in the Western media.
A number of administrative changes were indeed made to the running of the Saudi royal court. But as no conclusive evidence has been produced to link MbS directly to the killing, his position as the key figure in the Saudi regime appears undiminished. Moreover, his candid acceptance, in an interview with the PBS network aired this week, that ultimate responsibility for the Khashoggi killing rests with him because the murder happened on “my watch” appears to have drawn a line under the affair so far as most Western governments are concerned, with the US, as well as most European countries, slowly adopting a “business as usual” approach to their dealings with the Saudis.
By contrast, Mr Erdogan, who has been the main driving force behind efforts to cause the Saudis maximum discomfort, now has an abundance of problems of his own, challenges which could spell the end of his 16-years in charge. After Mr Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party lost badly in last April’s mayoral election for control of Istanbul, the Turkish leader now finds himself trying desperately to salvage Turkey’s battered economy, where the currency is in free fall, foreign debts remain vast, and inflation and joblessness are alarmingly high.
Many Turks blame their country’s plight on Mr Erdogan’s obsession with pursuing his radical Islamist agenda, which includes supporting groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many prefer him to concentrate instead on addressing their domestic concerns, a view the Turkish president would be well-advised to take on board if he intends to remain in power.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
