Why Erdogan Is Pulling His Punches at Saudi Arabia
Turkey would love to embarrass the kingdom to lift its stature in the Middle East, but there are constraints. The U.S. is one of them.
Intended audience.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesIt’s clear that a speech Tuesday morning by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t break much new ground about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. What’s less obvious is why Erdogan decided not to deliver on his promise to expose the “naked truth” about the killing, especially whatever he knows about the extent of involvement by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The answer lies in the nature of Turkey’s fraught relations with both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Turkey is not only navigating its longstanding rivalry with the Saudis, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Bobby Ghosh wrote on Tuesday, but with Washington as well, and is calibrating how far it can go without overplaying its hand.