The killing of Jamal Khashoggi has appalled and shocked the whole world. An internationally renowned journalist entered the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and then disappeared. I am going to give a chronological account of the incident in full. I intend to do a part of this with reference to the details given by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his latest speech to his parliamentary party group last week. We need to focus on the last five days for this.
Jamal Khashoggi landed in Istanbul in the early hours of Sept. 28 and entered Turkey. In the morning of the same day, he met with his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and went to the Fatih Marriage Office for marriage procedures where they learned about the documents they needed to obtain for marriage and left the building. The couple talked at the entrance of the building for a while about the documents and decided to go to the consulate. Khashoggi was nervous about going to the consulate. He told his fiancee about his worries saying, "Would they do anything?" And added, "You are with me and besides, I have a flight." Then he said, "I'll just stay shortly and come back soon." They headed to the consulate in the Levent district. When they arrived at the building, Khashoggi handed his two cellphones to his fiancee and went in unannounced immediately, apparently because of his worries.
Khashoggi was happy when he came back. Consulate officials welcomed him warmly and told him they would prepare the document attesting that he is divorced and hand it to him later. And Khashoggi said he would go abroad and come to the consulate upon his return to get the document. Consulate officials seemed content with that answer.
Khashoggi flew to London on the night of Sept. 28. There, at a conference, Oslo at 25: A Legacy of Broken Promises, he criticized Saudi Arabia's approach to the Palestine issue. Also attending were former ministers, deputies and ambassadors. Khashoggi was pictured at 04:06 a.m. on Oct. 2 in Istanbul, at airport passport control.
The same day, Maher Abdelaziz Mutreb, a colonel in Saudi intelligence who is believed to be the head of an execution team, left Riyadh for Istanbul with his team. Mutreb was also pictured at airport passport control in Istanbul at 03:37 a.m. CCTV footage shows Mutreb entering the consulate at 09:55 a.m.
Speaking at the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting on Oct. 23, President Erdoğan described this process in detail and said, "It's clear that the murder was premeditated." President Erdoğan's statement, "The movements of Saudi officials after Khashoggi's initial visit to the consulate on Sept. 28 clearly show that the murder was planned" is important. Erdoğan also said, "The fact that some consular officials went to their home country in a hurry indicates that the preparation work and planning were done there." Meanwhile, a team from the consulate carried out reconnaissance missions in Yalova and the Belgrad Forest on Oct. 1, a day before the murder.
The Saudi team enters the consulateOn Oct. 2, the 15-man team arrived at the consulate between 09:05 and 11:00 a.m. First, the hard drive of the consulate's CCTV system was removed. Khashoggi was called at 11:50 a.m. to confirm his appointment. As stated above, Khashoggi returned from London early the same day. After confirming the appointment on the phone, Khashoggi, who felt more relaxed as he had been treated well in his first visit on Sept. 28, arrived at the consulate on foot and entered the building at 01:08 p.m. Of course, his fiancee was waiting at the front of the building.
When Khashoggi did not come back, his fiancee got worried and informed the police about the situation at 17:50 p.m. She told the police that Khashoggi might have been forcefully detained or something might have happened to him. The police immediately launched an investigation. Upon inspection of CCTV footage, it became certain that Khashoggi had not left the consulate building. In the first stage, there were no procedures that could be done with regard to the consulate and consular workers due to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Hence, President Erdoğan remarked that this issue should be debated.
The suspects, which included forensic experts, left Turkey on private jets on the day of the murder at around 5 p.m., in two separate groups. A man who resembled Khashoggi and walked around to create the impression that Khashoggi had left the consulate also flew to Riyadh the next day on a scheduled flight. Meanwhile, consulate employees were gathered in one room with the excuse that supervision and residency personnel were given days off.
In its first statement on Oct. 4, the Saudi administration fully rejected any claims that Khashoggi was killed. On Oct. 6, the consul general invited a Reuters correspondent inside and opened and closed cupboards, electrical panels and doors in a careless manner, trying to defend himself. Meanwhile, intelligence and security officials and prosecutors were deepening their investigation. For example, footage showing Saudi officials burning documents in a metal barrel in the garden of the consulate the day after the murder was obtained. Upon insistent media coverage and through the seriousness of the Turkish authorities, Saudi authorities allowed the search of the consulate. By the way, let me add that the search permit was given after a phone call between President Erdoğan and the Saudi king on Oct. 14.
Finally, on Oct. 19, Saudi authorities officially admitted that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a fistfight at the consulate. On the same day, Erdoğan had another call with the king during late hours and learned that the 15 men who had come from Riyadh, plus the other three working at the consulate, had been arrested. On Oct. 21, Erdoğan also had a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, and the two agreed to shed light upon all aspects of the incident.
As President Erdoğan said, though the murder was committed inside a Saudi consulate considered as its territory, it took place in Istanbul, and this puts a responsibility on the Turkish government. Turkey has a responsibility to investigate that heinous murder on behalf of the international community and to prevent unjust accusations against itself.
President Erdoğan has reiterated what is certain: Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a vicious murder and his body has not been found yet.
Erdoğan's questions
President Erdoğan brought certain questions to the attention of the world when he said: "The Saudi administration has taken an important step by admitting to the murder. The next step is to come clean on the incident in all its parts. We have strong signs that the murder was the result of a planned operation, not a spontaneous development. In light of the current information, the following questions confront us all."
Why did the 15 people with qualifications related to the incident (a forensic expert, et cetera) gather in Istanbul on the day of the murder?
On whose orders did this team come to the consulate?
Why was the consulate not opened immediately for investigation, but only days later?
Why were dozens of inconsistent explanations made despite the clarity of the murder?
Why is the body of a person, the murder of whom has been officially admitted, still missing?
If the statement claims that the body was given to a "local collaborator," how is Saudi Arabia unable to explain who this local collaborator is?
After asking these questions, Erdoğan concluded his speech by affirming Turkey's resolution with the following words: "No one should think that this issue will be closed before all of these questions are answered. To blame such an incident on a handful of intelligence officers would not satisfy us or the international community. The conscience of humanity will only be satisfied once everybody is called to account, from those who gave the orders, to those who carried them out."
From the very beginning of this extremely sad incident, Turkey has followed up on the issue with all its institutions, in an impartial and serious manner. In his address to the party group, President Erdoğan informed the world about the current state of the investigation. While doing that, he avoided a political approach and relied on concrete evidence instead. For what Turkey really aims is to shed light such a brutal murder on its soil, in line with the norms of a democratic state of law and establish justice in the first place. Of course, Turkey is also worried that it may be unfairly linked to the murder. There are attempts to this end, and Turkey is very sensitive to the issue. That sensitivity should be also acknowledged.
Let's hope that this grave incident will serve as a lesson and no such murder will be committed anywhere in the world again. States should not get involved in such murders but protect innocent people's right to life. Saudi Arabia's conducting an impartial probe into the incident would only protect its prestige. This is the only way out of that difficult process. At this point, not only Saudi Arabia, but also every state having evidence and documents should help Turkey.
