ISTANBUL — A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party vowed Saturday that Turkey would “uncover what has happened” to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hours after Saudi authorities said that the Washington Post contributing columnist had been killed earlier this month during a fistfight inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
The Saudi explanation — that an argument in the consulate led to a fatal brawl — is at odds with the conclusions of Turkish investigators, who believe that Khashoggi was deliberately killed by a team of Saudi agents who were dispatched to Istanbul.
“We don’t blame anyone in advance, but we do not consent to this being covered up,” said the ruling party spokesman, Omar Celik, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.
[Saudi claims that Khashoggi died in a ‘brawl’ draw immediate skepticism]
Turkey’s reaction to the Saudi admission is being closely watched because of the conflicting stories and because Turkish authorities are said to possess evidence, including audiotapes, that could reveal exactly how Khashoggi was killed. Erdogan’s government has so far refused to publicly reveal that evidence, possibly to protect Turkish surveillance methods but also, analysts said, to preserve a measure of leverage over the Saudis and the Trump administration, which has tried to protect its Saudi allies.
[Turkey’s president pressured the Saudis to account for Khashoggi’s death]
Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia, vanished on the afternoon of Oct. 2, after visiting the Saudi Consulate to obtain documents that would allow him to remarry. For weeks, Saudi Arabia had denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and insisted that he had walked out of the consulate unharmed. The denials became harder to maintain as the Turkish authorities leaked investigative details, many lurid, about the case to the local and international news media.
The Saudi story changed early Saturday, when the government acknowledged for the first time that Khashoggi, who had written columns for The Post critical of the Saudi leadership, was dead. Saudi authorities said they had fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudi nationals as a result of the preliminary investigation. Two of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s close advisers were among those fired.
[What we know about the 15 Saudis said to have played a role in the Khashoggi case]
Turkish investigators are still searching for Khashoggi’s body, which they believe was cut into pieces after he was killed. The Saudi statements on Saturday did not address what happened to the body.
Read more:
Khashoggi’s last column: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
Khashoggi outcry galvanizes critics against Saudi arms sales
Saudi electronic army floods Twitter with insults and mistruths on Khashoggi
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