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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Mohammed bin Salman
Photo: HANDOUT/AFP
During his first visit to Saudi Arabia since the assassination of Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a clear signal of his willingness to approach his former rival.
In tweets written in Turkish and Arabic on Friday, Erdoğan called Saudi Arabia a "brother" and "friend."
We strive to intensify political, military and economic relations between the two countries and to start a new era.
Observers see primarily economic interests behind the rapprochement promoted by Erdoğan.
From the Saudi side, the meetings were described in a much more sober manner: they discussed Saudi-Turkish relations and the possibilities of further developing them in various areas.
The Turkish President expressed his pleasure to visit the Kingdom.
Concrete agreements have not been announced for the time being.
Erdoğan met the country's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and King Salman, among others.
The Turkish President, a devout Muslim, also traveled to the holy place of Mecca.
Photos showed him, for example, with his advisor Ibrahim Kalin and the head of the secret service, Hakan Fidan, in the white pilgrim robe on the Muslim pilgrimage.
The trip was the first since Khashoggi's murder, which had severely soured already strained relationships.
The journalist and government critic was killed in October 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
US secret services see the crown prince as the mastermind.
The royal family rejects this.
The Turkish government had also made sharp accusations against Saudi Arabia and negotiated the murder in its own country - but then, to the outrage of many, handed over the court case to Saudi Arabia in April.
The Wall Street Journal, citing Turkish government officials, reported that Crown Prince Mohammed had demanded that Erdoğan refrain from mentioning the Khashoggi case in the future as a condition for a rapprochement.
»Shame on you, I would like to say, but in vain«
The leader of Turkey's largest opposition party, CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, reacted indignantly to Erdoğan's visit: "Then he gets off the plane and rushes to the murderer's arms.
He bows to those who dismember people in his country," Kilicdaroglu wrote on Twitter.
"Shame on you, I would like to say, but in vain."
The rapprochement between the two countries is part of geopolitical power shifts and the formation of new alliances in the region.
Turkey, which is partially isolated in foreign policy, is trying to expand its bilateral relations with Arab states.
In February, the country concluded investment agreements worth billions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Turkey is currently in the throes of a severe economic crisis, and polls show that popular support for Erdoğan's conservative Islamic government is falling.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey have crossed paths on other issues in the past.
Ankara, for example, sided with Qatar in the Gulf crisis, and the two countries are supporting different actors in the conflicts in Libya and Syria.
dop/dpa