How Erdogan took control of the Khashoggi case

There were no big revelations in the speech, but Erdogan confirmed a number of leaked details about the investigation into Khashoggi’s death and attacked the Saudis’ latest explanation of it after they admitted that the journalist had been killed. “Saudi Arabia took an important step by accepting the murder,” Erdogan said. “After this, we expect them to reveal those responsible for this matter. We have information that the murder is not instant but planned.”

It was a stark contrast with the scene in Riyadh, where Saudi Arabia is holding a major investment conference — and where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been accused of approving the slaying, received a standing ovation.

The idea that Erdogan is the noble truth-teller of the Khashoggi case is confusing and deeply uncomfortable for many people. Since he first took power in 2003, Erdogan has broadly turned Turkish media into a government mouthpiece, often by way of violence and arrests. The Committee to Protect Journalists now says that more journalists are imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country.

But if no one knows what Erdogan’s motivations are, one thing seems certain: He’s the one in the driver’s seat. The Turkish government has repeatedly pressed the Saudis, demanding more information, casting doubt on Riyadh’s claims and even gaining access to the Saudi Consulate. It is widely assumed that Turkish officials have controlled the drip, drip, drip of leaks that has fed much of the media coverage of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“Such inflammatory information, originating in the security services and implicating a major rival regional power, would not be published without approval from the top,” Turkish journalist Ilhan Tanir wrote for BuzzFeed on Monday. “What happens next,” he said elsewhere in the piece, “is almost entirely under the Turkish strongman’s control.”

So what is Erdogan trying to accomplish? The Turkish leader may have seen a kindred spirit in Khashoggi — the journalist had an affinity for the sort of political Islam that Erdogan espouses — or simply been furious about having a provocative political killing committed by Saudi Arabia on his country’s soil.

But it is hard to ignore the broader geopolitical implications. Turkey is a key ally of Qatar, a country that has faced a Saudi-led boycott for more than a year. As my colleague Ishaan Tharoor wrote this month, such ties are part of Erdogan’s jockeying to match the growing influence of Mohammed, the youthful and powerful crown prince in Riyadh.

“Turkey flew troops and food supplies into Qatar last year and still maintains a military base in Doha,” Tharoor wrote. “Meanwhile, the Qataris pledged to inject some $15 billion worth of investment in Turkey’s flagging economy in August. Some analysts read Ankara’s moves — coupled with Erdogan’s overtures to Iran over the past year — as a riposte to the emergence of a U.S.-backed Middle East bloc including the Saudis, Emiratis and even Israel.”

Tuesday’s speech cemented the impression that Erdogan is targeting Mohammed. The Turkish president didn’t mention the crown prince by name during his address, speaking instead to King Salman, the crown prince’s father and the official head of the Saudi state. Many observers viewed it as an attempt to divide the elderly king from his divisive son.