Mediaboss Marketing

ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has kept the case of Jamal Khashoggi alive through a steady drip of leaks, forcing the Saudis to admit that the columnist and dissident was killed more than a month ago in their consulate in Istanbul.

But for Mr. Erdogan, the case has always been broader than journalistic freedom or human rights abuses. And, in fact, Mr. Erdogans use of the case in the name of justice has left many deeply conflicted in Turkey, a country where tens of thousands of citizens have been caught up in a government crackdown since a coup attempt in 2016.

The tactics Mr. Erdogan has used against the Saudis are much the same ones he has perfected against political enemies at home leaks planted by government sources and reported by friendly news outlets, which he then cites to destroy his opponents.

That approach has become a staple of the presidents arsenal to spread intimidation and to crack down on dissent. He has been able to employ it so effectively, including against the Saudis, partly because of a compliant news media that he has fashioned over 16 years in power.

But the same pro-government media outlets that have been a useful tool in the Khashoggi case have also published virulent content against many of those detained under the state of emergency. They include a well-known philanthropist and civil society activist, Osman Kavala, whom Mr. Erdogan described as the Soros of Turkey, referring to the billionaire George Soros.

Recently, finally despairing of Turkeys judicial process, Mr. Kavala issued a public statement through his lawyers for the first time since his detention in October last year. He has spent a year in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison without trial.

I just hope that my situation will contribute to understanding of the harm caused to the citizens and to the judiciary of the Republic of Turkey by this ill-fated custodial regime, he wrote.

Like Mr. Kavala, more than 100,000 people have been imprisoned during the two-year state of emergency, including academics, lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians who had no obvious link to the coup attempt.

About 50,000 people remain imprisoned two and a half years after the coup, according to figures published by Amnesty International. An additional 100,000 have been purged from their public-sector jobs.

The human rights landscape in Turkey is desolate, Amnesty said recently, one characterized by mass detentions, prosecutions, intimidation and the silencing of independent civil society.

That is especially so for journalists. Amnesty reported that 180 news outlets had been closed down since 2016, and 120 journalists detained.

Turkey remains the worlds worst jailer for the second consecutive year, with 73 journalists behind bars, compared with 81 last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote in its annual report in December. Dozens more still face trial, and fresh arrests take place regularly.

International press freedom organizations used the Khashoggi case to highlight their concerns. Gruesome nature of #Khashoggi murder should not distract from #Turkeys own persecution of journalists, the Vienna-based International Press Institute posted on Twitter.

But within Turkey, many remain fearful of voicing any criticism of Mr. Erdogan publicly, especially journalists, for whom his trumpeting of the Khashoggi case has presented a special quandary.

None of the Turkish journalists unions issued statements of support when Mr. Khashoggi disappeared, and they are notably absent from the vigils held outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

There was no political agenda in not making a statement, said Mustafa Kuleli, general secretary of the Journalists Union of Turkey. Journalist organizations in Turkey are trying to cope with colossal problems with very few professionals: thousands of trials against members, news organizations shut down, unemployment, poor working conditions.

We are every day in the courts supporting journalists, he added. I understand why time could not be devoted to the Khashoggi case.

Many of the journalists are ethnic Kurds and leftists accused of supporting outlawed organizations or the movement of an Islamist preacher, Fethullah Gulen, who is suspected of having instigated the coup attempt.

Mr. Erdogan has branded them as terrorists, including a German-Turkish correspondent of Die Welt and board members of, Cumhurriyet, one of Turkeys oldest and most prestigious newspapers.

Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Mr. Erdogan and a close friend of Mr. Khashoggis, made a separation between the imprisonment of Turkish journalists and the killing of the Saudi dissident commentator, who wrote for The Washington Post. Many of the journalists in Turkish jails were tied ideologically or were used by terrorist groups, in particular the pro-Kurdish journalists, he said.

These radical ideas are being sponsored, he said. It is not because they believe, but because they are tools.

Mr. Kavalas case is one of the most emblematic illustrations of the increasing authoritarianism of Mr. Erdogans government. He has been held on preliminary charges of having links to the instigators of the coup attempt and of using force to overthrow the government by supporting the Taksim Square protests of 2013 charges he denies. A year after his detention, he still has not been indicted.

A wealthy businessman who ran arts and cultural initiatives for minorities in Turkey, often in partnership with European organizations, Mr. Kavala set out to fight his case through the judicial process.

With each passing day, people who accuse me of attempting to abolish the constitutional order and the government come to realize more and more that I have nothing to do with these accusations, Mr. Kavala wrote.

His lawyers said that after a year of trying to fight his case within the parameters of the law, they were compelled to publicize what they called the injustice of the process and the flagrant violations of Mr. Kavalas constitutional rights.

His arrest on charges of overthrowing the state and the constitutional order through force were completely without evidence, one of his lawyers, Ilkan Koyuncu, said.

Before anything else, he is a man of dialogue, a man of reconciliation, a man of consensus, the lawyer said. In any period of his life, he was not a man to be associated with coercion and violence.

Three lawyers described a litany of legal violations, including duress used in interrogation and the failure to bring Mr. Kavala before the appropriate criminal judge. They said they had filed 20 petitions in complaint.

Mr. Kavalas detention without trial amounts to arbitrary detention, Mr. Koyuncu said.

For many, the detention appeared to be a warning to others across civil society. In his drive for almost sultan-like powers in a new presidential system formed this summer, Mr. Erdogan has frequently lashed out at liberals, leftists and anyone with a connection to the West.

Mr. Erdogan has treated those detained as personal enemies. When Mr. Kavala was detained, the president denounced him in an address to his parliamentary group the same before which he recently spoke on the Khashoggi case.

There, he gave credence to newspapers smears that Mr. Kavala had funded the Taksim Square protests and had other nefarious ties hostile to Turkey.

Some say he is civil society; he is a nice person, a good citizen, Mr. Erdogan said of Mr. Kavala. When you look, the same person is behind the Taksim events. You see them in the allocation of considerable funds to certain places. All the connections are revealed one by one.

He ended with his signature nationalist jibe: As a nation, we will not bow down and we will ask them to pay for it.

Go here to read the rest:
Erdogan Champions Khashoggi While Trampling Journalists ...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting of his ruling AK Party in Ankara, Turkey October 26, 2018. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia on Friday to disclose who gave the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well the location of his body, saying Turkey had more information about the case than it has shared so far.

Erdogan also said Riyadh needed to reveal the identity of the local cooperator who Saudi officials earlier said had taken Khashoggis body from Saudi agents after the journalist was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was premeditated, reversing previous statements that it was unintended.

Khashoggis murder has sparked global outrage and mushroomed into a crisis for the worlds top oil exporting country and Prince Mohammed, the kingdoms de facto ruler.

Who gave this order? Erdogan said in a speech to members of his AK Party in Ankara. Who gave the order for 15 people to come to Turkey? he said, referring to a 15-man Saudi security team Turkey has said flew into Istanbul hours before the killing. Erdogan also said Saudis public prosecutor was due to meet the Istanbul prosecutor in Istanbul on Sunday.

Saudi officials initially denied having anything to do with Khashoggis disappearance after he entered the consulate, before changing the official account to say an internal investigation suggested he was accidentally killed in a botched operation to return him to the kingdom.

On Thursday, Saudi state TV quoted the Saudi public prosecutor as saying the killing had been planned, and that prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.

Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun and Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Original post:
Turkey's Erdogan to Saudis: Who gave order to kill Khashoggi?

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Oct. 23, 2018 / 8:17 AM GMT/ UpdatedOct. 23, 2018 / 1:28 PM GMT

By F. Brinley Bruton, Saphora Smith and Josh Lederman

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that evidence showed the killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi was "brutal" and "premeditated."

The accusation, which contradicts Saudi claims that the dissident journalist died after a "quarrel" at its Istanbul consulate, could further inflame the diplomatic crisis over the case.

It appears that the squad who planned and executed the murder had been informed of Jamal Khashoggis visit," Erdogan said in a much-anticipated speech in parliament detailing what Turkey believes happened to the Saudi critic after he entered the building on Oct. 2.

After vehement denials that Saudi officials were involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, the Saudi government on Friday admitted the writer had died after a "suspect" traveled to Istanbul to meet with him. The discussions "did not go as required" and Khashoggi died in a subsequent fight, they said.

The president said a team of Saudis arrived in Istanbul the day before Khashoggi was killed, and cameras outside the consulate were disabled the same day the writer disappeared.

Erdogan called for 18 suspects named by Riyadh to be tried in Turkey, a Saudi regional rival, and said many questions remained about the case.

Who instructed these people? he asked, according to a translation by Sky News. Why were all these different statements made, the Turkish leader added, referring to the conflicting accounts by Saudi authorities. Why is the corpse of a person, admitted to have been killed, nowhere to be found?"

Erdogans address coincided with the opening of the Future Investment Initiative, a glittering gathering under the auspices of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that is aimed at showcasing oil-rich Saudi Arabia as a moderate high-tech mecca. In recent days, a slew of businesses leaders and media companies announced that they were pulling out of the meeting dubbed Davos in the Desert.

While calling Khashoggi's death "brutal," Erdogan did not repeat some of the more lurid allegations around the killing. Turkish authorities previously said they have audio recordings proving Khashoggi died and dismembered inside the building. Other regional diplomats have told NBC News that they believe his remains were removed from the consulate in boxes.

Erdogan also did not mention the alleged audio recordings during his speech, although he described how "another person who had been given the look of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi with his outfit, with his glasses, with his beard.

Later on Tuesday, NBC News obtained surveillance footage from Turkish officials allegedly showing Mustafa al-Madani, a member of the Saudi team who acted as a body double by dressing in Khashoggis clothes and leaving the consulate by a back door. The footage shows his movements while in Turkey, the sources said.

Erdogan also called Khashoggis death a "political murder."

"If there are other people or circles implicated in other countries they have to be included in that investigation as well, this is a requirement of international law, Islamic law and also I believe a requirement of the law of the land of Saudi Arabia," Erdogan added.

While accusing Saudi officials of initially obstructing the investigation into into the writer's disappearance, Turkey's president said he did not "doubt the sincerity" of Saudi Arabia's King Salman. Erdogan did not mention the king's son, the crown prince, adding that the order to kill Khashoggi must have come from high in the Saudi hierarchy.

The crown prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, has been charged with reorganizing the intelligence service in the wake of Khashoggi's killing and is thus seen to be tightening his grip on power.

Citing multiple U.S. government officials, NBC News reported Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe it's inconceivable that the crown prince had no connection to Khashoggi's death.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir admitted that Saudis were involved in Khashoggi's killing but described it as a "rogue operation."

The kingdom said on Friday that 18 Saudi nationals were being investigated over Khashoggi's death, adding that five officials had been fired.

Bin Salman has launched a high-profile campaign to revamp Saudi Arabias image abroad, and wean its economy off of oil. While he has won plaudits in the West for his efforts to steer Saudi Arabia toward more moderate Islam, he has also overseen a wide crackdown on dissent that has engulfed fellow royals, clerics and womens rights and democracy campaigners.

The Khashoggi controversy helped crystallize growing unease in the West about the 33-year-old crown prince and the Saudi government in general. The absolute monarchy is a longtime U.S. ally and considered a bulwark against Iran.

The crown prince's muscular foreign policy including the kidnapping of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, the economic boycott against Qatar and a brutal Saudi-led war in neighboring Yemen had sent ripples of concern throughout the West even before Khashoggis disappearance.

Khashoggi, a former regime insider who was well-connected in media and political circles in Washington, had been especially critical of bin Salmans drive to stifle opposition.

President Donald Trump has weighed in on the case several times, a sign of how seriously the crisis is being taken in the White House. The administration has made Saudi Arabia a linchpin of its Middle East policies and embraced the crown prince.

Trump was initially reluctant to criticize the kingdom's role in the killing but he later questioned the official Saudi account. The president has also said he has spoken with the crown prince.

The administration also dispatched senior officials to Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss Khashoggi's disappearance.

CIA Director Gina Haspel was traveling to Turkey as part of the investigation, a senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News overnight.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with the crown prince in Riyadh, although he said last week that he would not be attending the Future Investment Initiative.

Robert Windrem, Nick Bailey and Reuters contributed.

Go here to read the rest:
Turkey's Erdogan says Khashoggi's 'brutal' killing was ...

LONDON

As they demand answers about his death, friends of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have drawn some comfort from the unlikely figure of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has overseen his own crackdown on dissent, has jailed journalists and has shuttered media outlets in his country.

Khashoggis friends hope Erdogan, who has vowed that Turkey won't let anyone get away with the "savage" killing of the journalist inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, won't be diverted from discovering the full details of the Oct. 2 slaying.

"It is not over yet, the Turkish leader has promised. We are unraveling, dismantling [the case], and the world is closely following."

But Erdogan's midweek speech to the Turkish parliament on Khashoggi's death, which he had billed just days before as the moment for the "naked truth" to come out, has left them queasy, and has prompted others to question exactly what Turkey's president wants out of the Khashoggi affair.

In his speech, Erdogan added no new details to what was known already. "He did not drop a bombshell and he did not reveal anything we didn't know before," said Gonul Tol of the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based research group, aside from hinting he had personally approved the leaks to the media.

His officials have been drip-feeding to the media lurid information about the grisly slaying in order to "maximize pressure on the Saudis" and to force reluctant admissions from them, said Peter Ricketts, a former British diplomat.

Riyadh first claimed Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, only to be forced to admit the dissident commentator had been killed. But it insisted the killing was a rogue operation by renegade security and intelligence officials.

In a twist that's adding to the unease of those who want to get to the bottom of the killing, Erdogan spoke by phone Thursday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man many believe most likely had prior knowledge of the plan to kill Khashoggi. That view appears to be shared partially by U.S. President Donald Trump, who told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, "He's running things and so if anybody were going to be [informed], it would be him."

The phone call between the two men, who have often clashed before, is prompting further questions about Erdogan's objectives. Does he really want the "naked truth" to emerge, or will he parlay Khashoggi's death into a geopolitical deal serving other purposes, such as leveraging the oil-rich Saudis money to help Turkey's ailing economy?

Reportedly, Erdogan reacted dismissively to an offer of financial aid and investments made by Saudi royal family member Prince Khalid bin Faisal al-Saud during his visit last week to the Turkish capital. But "there's no evidence about a bargain that would involve a loan or investment by the Saudis in Turkey," said academic Galip Dalay, a friend of Khashoggi.

Balancing power, economy

But the Saudis have traditionally made problems go away by writing checks, and large Saudi investments could help calm financial markets and restore some confidence in Turkey's beleaguered economy, analysts said.

Tol said Erdogan has to be careful that the Khashoggi affair doesn't backfire on Turkey economically. "Gulf countries have played an important role in the Turkish economy," she said. "Since 2002 when Erdogan first came into office, he has sought to decrease Turkish dependence on European investments and reached out to the Gulf countries.And the Saudis play a huge role in the Turkish economy."

That's especially important for Erdogan now, she said, when Turkey is struggling and "can't secure enough European investments."

Above all, he must avoid pushing the case to the point of rupture with the Saudis, she said, and that may explain his careful strategy. "You have to give credit to Erdogan for the way he has played his hand very well," she said in a podcast released Thursday by the Middle East Institute.

Other analysts suspect Erdogan may have more than the Turkish economy in mind.

In the Turkish capital, and among analysts in Europe and America, there's conjecture that Erdogan's aims are much broader than securing a single payoff and that they include major geopolitical objectives and a recalibration of the balance of power in the Gulf by dislodging the crown prince, or at the very least persuading the Saudi monarch, King Salman, to rein in his son.

Among Erdogan's aims, according to analysts, is a likely parlaying of the Khashoggi affair into an end to the Saudis' economic blockade of Turkish ally Qatar and to halt the kingdom's antipathy to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is aligned with Erdogan's ruling AKP party.

Western diplomats say that by pressuring the Saudi royal family with astute leaking and withholding of information, the Turkish leader is increasing his leverage. "The one thing the Saudis don't want to happen is for the [reported] audio tape [of the killing] to be released. Then the fallout would be even harder to contain," said a former British envoy to the Gulf kingdom. "If Erdogan steers this killing to safe port and minimizes the damage to the Saudi royal family, he will be owed a lot of favors."

Original post:
What Does Turkey's Erdogan Want From Khashoggi Probe?

ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Tuesday raised the stakes in his dispute with Saudi Arabia over what he called the premeditated murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, demanding that Riyadh supply more answers and hand over the Saudi suspects.

After saying he would reveal the naked truth about Mr. Khashoggis death, Mr. Erdogan, making his first extended remarks on the case, sketched out the chronology of a broad operation.

The 15-member team of Saudi officials arrived in stages in Istanbul to carry out the killing, and included generals, senior intelligence officers and forensic officials, Mr. Erdogan said. The Saudis also conducted reconnaissance in rural areas outside the city where investigators have been searching for Mr. Khashoggis remains, the president said.

It is clear that this savage murder did not happen instantly but was planned, Mr. Erdogan said, challenging the official Saudi account.

But while Mr. Erdogan offered some new details and confirmed others, the speech mainly served to make clear that Mr. Erdogan had no intention of dropping a case that has created an international furor.

He pressed the Saudis for an honest accounting of a killing that he pointedly noted occurred inside his country, and he posed a series of tough questions, throwing down a challenge to the Saudi leadership.

Why was a team of 15 Saudi men, all with qualifications related to the incident, gathering in Istanbul on the day of the murder? We are seeking answers to this question. On whose orders did those individuals go there?

Saudi Arabia has said that 18 officials are under investigation in the killing, but Mr. Erdogan said that he would call King Salman of Saudi Arabia and ask that the case be adjudicated in Istanbul, not in Riyadh or elsewhere in Saudi Arabia.

The killing of Mr. Khashoggi, 59, inside the Saudi Consulate raised questions of international law and diplomatic conventions that concerned the entire world community, Mr. Erdogan said, clearly trying to broaden the pressure on the Saudi government.

This murder might have been committed at a consulate building which may be considered Saudi Arabian land, but it rests within the borders of Turkey, Mr. Erdogan said, adding that international agreements on the status of consular property cannot allow the investigation of this murder to be concealed behind the armor of immunity.

The Saudi government maintained at first that Mr. Khashoggi left the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul alive on Oct. 2. Since admitting on Friday that Mr. Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, Saudi Arabia has claimed that his death was accidental and that the operation was not authorized by the countrys crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Mr. Erdogans much-anticipated address, to the weekly gathering of his party in the Parliament chamber in Ankara, came after more than two weeks of carefully orchestrated leaks to the news media by Turkey that implicated the highest levels of the Saudi government.

Mr. Erdogan promised on Sunday that he would reveal the details of Turkeys investigation in his speech on Tuesday. Previously, he had said little in public about Mr. Khashoggis disappearance, but he had waged a behind-the-scenes battle through a campaign of government leaks to international and Turkish news outlets.

Confirming many of those details on Tuesday, the Turkish president outlined the Saudi planning as he gave a detailed timeline of events since Sept. 28, when Mr. Khashoggi first visited the Saudi Consulate to request documents to allow him to marry his Turkish fiance.

Immediately after Mr. Khashoggis first visit to the consulate, some of the consular staff left for Saudi Arabia, Mr. Erdogan said. A planning, a road map started to be established there, he said. Some of the consulate staff going to their country in a hurry implies that the preparations were made there.

Some information being evaluated by our security and intelligence units points to an absolutely premeditated act, he added. But he warned that Turkey would not accept an outcome in which the blame was placed only on those who carried out the killing without also exposing those who gave the orders.

Putting all the burden on a few security and intelligence members would satisfy neither us nor the international community, he said. We could be satisfied only if everyone, from the one giving the order to the one who carried it out, are called to account.

That was the closest Mr. Erdogan came to calling out Prince Mohammed, who has denied any knowledge of the plot despite his close ties to many of the suspects.

Mr. Erdogan showed deference to the Saudi king, but pressed him to conduct a fairer investigation, and the president seemed to suggest that it was not acceptable to allow the crown prince to lead the investigation or to oversee the intelligence service.

I do not doubt the sincerity of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Mr. Erdogan said. Still, such a critical investigation should be conducted by a fair committee which has not the tiniest doubt of connection to the murder.

Mr. Erdogan indicated that there was more intelligence on the case and revealed a few new details, including that Saudi officials had done a reconnaissance of the Belgrad Forest and Yalova, and that Saudi officials had ripped out the hard disk of the closed-circuit television system inside the consulate.

And with rhetorical flair, he enunciated the many questions still outstanding in the case.

Why has the consulate general building not been opened right away but days after? Were seeking answers. When the murder was so clear, why have so many inconsistent statements been made? Why has the body of someone, the killing of whom has been officially admitted, not been found?

Although Mr. Erdogan was careful to avoid a direct clash with Riyadh, the Saudi prevarication has clearly angered him. He told journalists that he had complained to a high-level Saudi delegation that the consuls handling of the case had been frivolous.

Mr. Erdogans promise to give the unvarnished truth caused a new flurry of diplomatic activity. Ibrahim Kalin, the national security adviser and presidential spokesman, said at a news conference in Ankara on Monday that Mr. Erdogan had had a phone call with President Trump over the weekend, and that the two discussed the Khashoggi case.

The White House sent the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, to Istanbul to help the Turkish government with its investigation, according to an official. But in Riyadh, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a wide-ranging meeting with Prince Mohammed.

Analysts described two camps among political leaders: those who wanted a diplomatic arrangement to allow the scandal to blow over, and those who wanted to take stronger action against the kingdom and even the crown prince.

On Sunday, the spokesman for Mr. Erdogans Justice and Development Party, Omer Celik, dismissed any suggestion of a deal being hatched between Turkey and Saudi Arabia or indeed among Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The claim of negotiations is immoral, he said at a news briefing in Ankara. It is our duty of honor to bring out the truth. This is a situation in which Turkey is appreciated.

Turkish officials echoed Mr. Erdogans challenge to the Saudi government and to the crown prince in particular to come clean. Yet there were signs of softness amid the outrage.

The issue is to reveal a vicious murder, Mr. Kalin, the presidential spokesman, said.

Our presidents line is clear from the beginning, he added. It is our duty and aim to reveal the event in all its details. Nothing about this event will stay a secret, he said, adding a non sequitur: Saudi Arabia is a brother country to us.

After listening to Mr. Erdogans speech on Tuesday, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, He doesnt want to rupture with the Saudi king.

Erdogan has always been deferential toward the king, whom he respects as the protector of Islams holy mosques, and has decided to separate the king from his son, targeting only the crown prince, he said.

The speech pointed to a success of American mediation in the affair, Mr. Cagaptay said, adding, Erdogan has agreed to give these efforts more time.

Mr. Erdogan largely confined himself to confirming what his government had already leaked to the news media, occasionally adding new details, rather than dropping new bombshells. And he did not mention Turkish officials claims that his government had audio and video recordings of the killing, and that Mr. Khashoggi had been dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate.

But while not directly implicating the crown prince, Mr. Cagaptay said Mr. Erdogan was nonetheless charging him with responsibility. Hes embracing a strategy on M.B.S. to undermine him in the long term, Mr. Cagaptay wrote in an email, referring to Prince Mohammed by his initials.

Mr. Erdogan was still intent on internationalizing the Khashoggi case to engage international pressure, particularly from the United States, on Riyadh to replace or sideline Prince Mohammed, Galip Dalay, a nonresident fellow at Brookings Doha Center and a visiting scholar at Oxford University, said in comments before the speech.

Turkey wants him sidelined or for his powers to be dramatically reduced, he said.

Nevertheless, Mr. Dalay added, Mr. Erdogan does not want a direct fight with Saudi Arabia. He does not want to turn this into a bilateral argument between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, he said of the Turkish president. He wants it to be on one side M.B.S. and on the other a murdered journalist.

Read more:
Erdogan Says Saudis Planned Khashoggis Killing in Turkey ...