It was no longer a surprise when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced at an event organized by the Association of Turkish Exporters that he would visit Saudi Arabia next month.

"He's waiting for me in February, he promised," said Erdoğan.

Everyone understood that Erdoğan was referring to Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the strong man of the kingdom.

Rainer Hermann

Editor in politics.

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Ankara and Riyadh have been working for months to normalize their relations, which had fallen to a low point with the assassination of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate general in Istanbul. That morning, 15 Saudis had arrived at Istanbul airport. According to the analysis of the recordings at the airport, there was a bone saw in a suitcase, with which Khashoggi's body was allegedly dismembered.

A possible meeting of the Turkish president with the Saudi crown prince had already been speculated last December when Erdoğan visited Qatar for two days and signed 15 economic agreements.

Muhammad bin Salman arrived in Doha just a few hours after the flight took off.

It was speculated that Saudi Arabia was not yet interested in meeting Erdoğan.

Turkey needs concrete commitments

Erdoğan did not hold the crown prince responsible for the murder of Khashoggi, with whom he was last on friendly terms. On the other hand, he spoke of the fact that the order had been given "from the very top". The director of the American National Intelligence Services also came to the same conclusion. His February 11, 2021 report said the Crown Prince approved an operation to kidnap or kill Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia has always rejected that.

Erdoğan never missed an opportunity in a struggle for moral leadership in the Islamic world to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for Khashoggi's death. In Turkey, in the absence of the accused, a trial of 20 people allegedly involved in the murder began. The Saudi leadership made Turkey feel its displeasure with economic measures. In October 2020, the umbrella association of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce called for a boycott of Turkish goods, which had an effect. Ankara therefore sued the World Trade Organization against Riyadh. The value of Turkish deliveries of goods fell to less than a tenth. The Turkish drones ordered were not affected.

The Saudi property purchases in Turkey are clearly in decline. In addition, the Saudi Ministry of Education ordered eight Turkish schools to be closed by the end of the 2020/21 school year. They taught more than 2,200 students, mostly children of Turkish citizens. Turkey took further measures that Riyadh was taking in connection with the pandemic. In July 2021, Turkey landed on a “red list”. Saudi citizens returning from a listed state are punished with a three-year travel ban.

In the struggle for leadership in the Middle East since 2013, an economically strong Turkey and Qatar on the one hand and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on the other had faced each other.

Last year Erdoğan hinted that Ankara could send an ambassador to Cairo again, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi promised an investment of ten billion dollars in Ankara in November.

Now Turkey is also approaching Saudi Arabia.

Erdoğan and King Salman have already phoned twice in the past year.

What Turkey, hit by a severe economic crisis, needs, however, are concrete economic commitments, even if it is only that trade with Saudi Arabia works again.