Burhan Ozbilici | AP
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks during a joint press conference with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018.
“Now our expectation is that all those responsible, from the highest level to the lowest level, will be highlighted and will be brought to justice and will get the punishment they deserve,” he said, adding: “We cannot put the blame on a number of security or intelligence officials for such an incidence, it will not satisfy either us or the international community. The international conscience will only be satisfied when everyone is held accountable — the executors and the persons or the people that gave the instruction,” he said.
“Personally, I don’t doubt the sincerity of (Saudi Arabia’s) King Salman … however, it is very, very important that there is a truly impartial and just delegation that does the investigation that looks into what happened,” he said to applause from lawmakers. “Since this is a political murder, if there are other people or circles implicated in other countries they have to be included in that investigation as well.”
Erdogan proposed that any trials of those involved, that he said totaled 18 people, should be held in Istanbul.
The Turkish president had signaled on Sunday that said he would make all the necessary statements about the killing of Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi royal family. The promise comes after weeks of investigations by Turkish officials into the death of Khashoggi, and an international outcry over his disappearance.
Erdogan’s statement comes on the same day as Saudi Arabia launches its Future Investment Initiative (FII), an investment conference in Riyadh. Many notable attendants and media organizations pulled out of the event following Khashoggi’s disappearance, and the kingdom’s political and business ties with the West appear more fragile.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday morning that Turkey will cooperate with any international investigation into Khashoggi’s death. He said that the country had not yet shared any information with any country on the Khashoggi case yet, however, Reuters reported.