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Even as relations with Saudi Arabia improve, Turkey must maintain its demand for justice for slain Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi, his Turkish fiancee told AFP in an interview.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 exacerbated already strained relations between the two Sunni regional powers and rivals, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
“I believe Turkey must maintain its insistence (on justice) even if relations improve,” Hatice Cengiz said this week after attending another hearing in the case at Istanbul’s main court.
“I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interests to completely shut it down.”
Cengiz was waiting for Khashoggi outside the consulate when he was killed.
The 59-year-old Saudi insider-turned-critic had gone to the consulate to obtain documents for his wedding to Cengiz.
He was dismembered in the consulate, and his body was never found.
“In order for such a thing not to happen again, in order for this matter to at least reach the best moral and legal level possible, (Turkey) should not abandon this case,” Cengiz said.
She has been in Istanbul since the pandemic and keeps up with the news. She now maintains a low media profile, only tweeting in response to major developments in the case.
In November, she published an open letter in The Washington Post requesting that Justin Bieber cancel his concert in Saudi Arabia.
The assassination sparked international outrage, with Western intelligence agencies accusing the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, of ordering the assassination.
The murder had strained relations between Ankara and Riyadh.
At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the order to kill came “from the highest levels” of the Saudi government, though he did not name the powerful crown prince.
A country is not ruled by emotions.
Nonetheless, Turkey has spent the last two years attempting to mend relations with regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Erdogan announced in January that he would pay a visit to Riyadh, which would come at a critical time for Turkey, with inflation reaching a 20-year high of nearly 49 percent.
“Emotionally speaking, of course, I am sad,” she added.
