Why Are Foes Turkey And Saudi Arabia Fixing Ties?

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What’s happening?

The killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul sent an already tense and shaky relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia into complete free fall.
Fast-forward 3 1/2 years later and it appears Turkey and Saudi Arabia are attempting to build a bridge and move on.
In his first trip to Saudi Arabia in five years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan embraced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and sipped traditional Arabic coffee with King Salman before a state dinner and direct talks that ran into the early hours of Friday.

Turkey’s diplomatic drive coincides with the country’s worst economic crisis in two decades.
Having wealthy Gulf Arab states as allies can help draw
Turkey has also taken steps to improve relations with Egypt and Israel.
After mending ties with the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi announced a $10 billion fund to support investments in Turkey and made other moves to support the economy.
Official inflation stands at a staggering 61% while the lira tumbled 44% in value against the dollar last year.
These figures do not bode well for Erdogan, whose grip on power could be threatened by the country’s economic woes.
Turkey is scheduled to hold elections next year.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is enjoying a bumper economic year with its foreign reserves expected to climb.
Higher energy prices are forecast to rake in more than $400 billion of revenue this year for the kingdom.
In other words, Saudi Arabia has capital to invest in Turkey.

Saudi Arabia’s change of heart comes as the kingdom seeks to broaden its alliances at a time when relations between Riyadh and Washington are strained.
The crown prince has yet to hold a direct call with President Joe Biden since he took office over a year ago.
A number of lawmakers from Biden’s Democratic party have openly called on him to get even tougher with Saudi Arabia, calling the kingdom a bad strategic partner as it sticks to an OPEC-led pact with Russia that critics say has worsened an oil supply crunch amid the war in Ukraine.
The timing for reconciliation also makes more sense now.
Saudi Arabia ended a years-long embargo on Qatar over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist opposition groups.
Although relations have been restored between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they had yet to be fixed with Qatar’s steadfast ally — Turkey— until now.

Possibly, the strongest impetus for reconciliation is that the crown prince wants to put a definitive end to the scandal of Khashoggi’s killing that has loomed over him and cast a pall on his reputation.
Big name Western investors and politicians stayed away from Riyadh in the aftermath of the killing, though some have since returned to do business again in the kingdom.

Turkey had a case open against 26 Saudi suspects in absentia, but three weeks to the day before Erdogan was set to land in Saudi Arabia,
The Turkish prosecutor pulled the plug on the case by transferring it to the kingdom, which had already held its own widely-criticized trial.
No officials overseeing the operation were ever convicted.

Saudi Arabia launched an unofficial embargo on Turkish exports, dramatically curbing around $5 billion in bilateral trade.
The kingdom also temporarily barred wildly popular Turkish soap operas that were dubbed into Arabic from airing on affiliated satellite television stations.
Those soap operas had helped boost Turkey’s cultural clout across the Mideast and drew tourism and investment to Turkey from viewers.
Before Khashoggi’s slaying, Saudi investments had reached around $2 billion and Turkey’s investments in SaudiArabia were valued at around $660 million.
More than 200 Turkish companies were operating in the country, according to Turkey’s foreign ministry.
A year before the killing, Saudi citizens had bought up more than 3,500 properties in Turkey.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are once again most concerned with Iran, which has been inching toward a nuclear deal with the U.S. that could lift key sanctions.
Turkey and Iran, while not rivals, have competed for power in Syria and Iraq, though they maintain economic relations and share a border.
Having Turkey closely aligned with Gulf Arab states could add pressure on Iran.

Q) Which among the following countries does not share border with Mediterranean sea?