Riyadh and Ankara meet for the first time after five years of breakup | Saudi Arabia and Turkey

The Saudi prince and foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, receives his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, in Riyadh this Tuesday, with the aim of resuming the dialogue between the two states and overcoming the differences that have caused an impasse in their relations since 2016 The meeting ends a five-year drought without official meetings between Saudi Arabia and Turkey amid attempts by the Turkish government to defuse tensions with its regional neighbors. The Turkish Foreign Ministry reported Çavusoglu’s departure for the Kingdom through a brief statement. Upon his arrival, the Turkish government’s foreign policy minister declared via Twitter that he was already in Saudi Arabia to “discuss our bilateral relations and deal with important issues related to our region.” “Especially the attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the persecution of the Palestinian people,” he added. Ministry sources leaked to the media that Çavusoglu’s visit would respond to a possible negotiation for the sale of Ottoman-owned drones to the Wahhabi Kingdom upon request. from the last batch. In any case, the minister’s trip is mainly intended to repair relations with Saudi Arabia and to end the boycott that plagues the Turkish economy. This was recognized by President Erdogan’s adviser in statements to Reuters, Ibrahim Kalin. The positions of Riyadh and Ankara have been divergent on foreign policy. The conflict in Libya, where Saudi Arabia has backed General Haftar and Turkey does the same with the Government of National Accord of Fayez al Sarraj, delayed tensions between the two.Another point of friction has been Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, persecuted by the Saudi regime. Relations with Qatar have also been a source of controversy between the two. While Saudi Arabia and its regional partners vetoed the Emirate for its strong ties to political Islamism, Turkey took a position on the Qatari side in the dispute in what experts interpreted as the sponsorship of an expansionist agenda by President Erdogan. However, the normalization of Qatar’s relations with its Gulf neighbors at the Al-Ula summit puts the Emirate back in a focused position, which is why Qatar would be playing a moderating role and could facilitate talks between Ankara. and Riyadh. The news of the visit of the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Saudi city of Jeddah to meet with the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, seems to point in this direction. belli These are the evidences that prove the disparity of interests in the region, however, the atrocious assassination of dissident Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of a squad sent by Mohamed bin Salman himself to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 ended up blowing up bilateral relations between Ankara and Riyadh. Erdogan stated that the express order to kill Khashoggi originated from “the highest levels” of the Saudi regime. A CIA report published in February confirmed the suspicions despite the denial of Saudi Arabia. Following the disappearance of the Saudi journalist, the Ottoman Justice launched a judicial investigation to clarify the case.The proceedings initiated by the Turkish courts ended with the sentence to prison terms for eight people involved in the murder of Khashoggi. Just a few months earlier, Saudi Arabia held its own trial in this regard with eight other alleged convicts. Kalin, the adviser to the Turkish president, welcomed the trial in Saudi Arabia: “They have had a court. Trials have been held. ”Turkey’s impetus to find guilty angered Riyadh. The Kingdom decided to put pressure on Saudi companies to boycott Turkey’s commercial sector. The harassment in economic matters caused a 93% drop in Turkish exports to the Saudi regime compared to the previous year between the months of January and April of this year, according to the Assembly of Exporters of Turkey (TIM). Simultaneously, the total volume of trade with Saudi Arabia plummeted from $ 1 billion to $ 67 million. The economic consequences have not been the only ones to emerge from the tensions. The erosion of bilateral relations has also materialized in the academic sphere with the closure of 16 Turkish educational centers on Saudi soil, eight this year and another eight last year. The Kingdom Ministry of Education made the decision public last April due to the failure of the Turkish Government. In addition, the Saudi Ministry modified the textbooks to call the presence of the Ottoman Empire in the Arabian Peninsula in August 2019 as an “occupation”, immersed in a complex geopolitical situation and with a role inferior to that of its rivals, the Erdogan government. it intends to influence a line of recovery and stabilization of its bilateral relations with the different regional actors.For this reason, Ankara tries to show a favorable image in the Middle East, especially with the UAE and Egypt. The Turkish government has shown special attention to its relations with the latter, also an ally of Saudi Arabia.