Going beyond speculation in the Khashoggi case

It has now been eight days since Jamal Khashoggi disappeared within the boundaries of Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. During these eight days, many scenarios were contrived about what might have happened to Khashoggi. Some of these were verified and some were not. Some, on the other hand, pushed the limits of our imagination.

Some reports in the press which were said to be based on the information they got from the police, were stating that Khashoggi was viciously murdered, but this news was neither verified nor refuted.

On the other hand, the investigation is still continuing rigorously and confidentially thanks to the efforts of the National Intelligence Organization, the police and the Istanbul Office of the Chief Prosecutor. The conclusion they reach will provide serious and accurate “information.”

Until then, the information we have is that Khashoggi indeed entered the consulate but still has not come out in normal ways.

Again, in the meantime, there is a group that left the consulate in cars with black windows about two hours after Khashoggi arrived and that they went to the consulate residency, from where they left the country by private jets, without staying in the rooms which they booked for four days.

Until an official statement is made, one’s imagination may create many scenarios about this very ambiguous case. Theoretically, it is possible to say anything on this matter but after a point, it is just speculation. Naturally the more you know the less you speculate.

Of course, we need to err on the side of caution. There is still a chance Khashoggi might be alive.

Another issue in this matter where we should err on the side of caution is Turkey-Saudi Arabia relations. There is no meaning in raging against Saudi Arabia because of Khashoggi’s disappearance in the consulate and it is also certainly no good.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are still two countries that need each other. Their destinies are tied together. Questioning what happened to Khashoggi and expecting the Saudi authorities to provide answers does not necessarily mean you have to become an enemy of Saudi Arabia.

In a program I joined on an Arab TV channel, I answered a question on the possible impact of this incident on the bilateral relations between these two countries. I started by stating that the two nations are sharing a common fate and said the following:

“Let’s assume that this incident occurred as brutally as it was reported in the press; in that case, we will still be avoiding statements which would totally incriminate Saudi Arabia. Of course, a state cannot act beyond the law, otherwise, you don’t call it a state. In this case, we might be dealing with an organization which is acting as a kind of deep state structure by using the means of a state representing its own people. It is necessary to eradicate these elements.

Turkey has experience with this kind of a “deep state” structure. Those who were acting unlawfully in the name of the state have been punished in the name of the state and these elements were eradicated.”

Indeed, anyone who uses any kind of state authority and who could organize all the staff at the consulate to abduct or even kill a free person, before anything else, is betraying his/her own country and this means that he/she is a threat to their own people and their own state.

He/she destroys his/her own state’s right to be sovereign.

Because a state isn’t an organization which is not based on law and constitutes a threat to its own citizens.

Thus, what we ask from Saudi Arabia is above all things, to reveal these illegal structures which are against Turkey and the whole of humanity.

Regardless of their title. Of course, we know that this is not an easy task for Saudi Arabia. It has not been easy for Turkey either, but in order to be a real state or to save the state from an organization that infiltrated it, this is a must.

That is why defending Khashoggi’s cause is not being hostile to Saudi Arabia, quite the opposite, it is being friendly to it.

Actually, one of the most important causes of Khashoggi was to stress that Turkey-Saudi Arabia relations share a common fate and to develop these relations.

One of his statements I remember the most was how he admires Turkey’s maturity of not lashing out at Saudi Arabia, although there have been many sentiments against Turkey in the official and semi-official media and his suggestion that it should continue to do so.

What happened to Khashoggi certainly does not invalidate his cause, on the contrary it mandates us to be more sensitive about this issue.