Khashoggi murderers left Turkey over Saudi King’s phone call: Opposition party leader

ANKARA

Turkey complies with any “foreign interventions” on its major issues, the main opposition party leader said, suggesting that Ankara allowed the murderers of the Saudi journalist to leave Turkey after a phone call between Saudi King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“The Saudi king makes a phone call. Then murderers in Turkey leave the country freely,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Nov. 1, speaking at Turkey’s Pharmacy Congress.

The CHP leader was referring to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi Consulate General to Istanbul, who left Turkey a few days after the disappearance of the journalist.

“There is a Turkey that resigns itself to foreign interventions. I am embarrassed with that in the name of democracy,” he said.

He recalled that the German journalist was released after a phone call made by Chancellor Angela Merkel and detained United States Pastor Andrew Brunson was freed after a call by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“If democracy was well functioning and fear was not dominating, Turkey would stand up [protest],” he said.

The CHP leader called on Turkish intellectuals to defend democracy regardless of whether they come from leftist or rightist ideology.

“We have to resolve our issues by our own will,” he said.

“Turkey has been through an economic crisis but nobody dares to speak of it,” the CHP leader said. Deprived segments of society should not pay the burden of this crisis, but the ones ruling the country, he added. If there will be a burden of the crisis, that should be paid in line with the purchasing power of the country, Kılıçdaroğlu said.