Main opposition leader offers condolences to Washington Post

Turkey’s main opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu visited Washington Post newspaper during second leg of what he called “2nd Century vision tour” to the United States, where he expressed condolences over the newspaper’s columnist Jamal Kashoggi who was murdered in April 2018 in the Istanbul consulate by Saudi intelligence.

“With this terrible assassination, not only freedom of thought, but also humanity suffered great wounds. Transferring the murder case of Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia is a great insult to Turkey's sovereignty. This outrageous murder was committed in our lands,” Kilicdaroglu said on Twitter.

In June, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman traveled to Turkey to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, after Turkey dropped a lawsuit of 26 Saudis accused of killing Khashoggi and transferred the case to Saudi Arabia in April. The two leaders emphasized the countries' determination to start a new era of cooperation in many areas, such as trade, energy and defense.

In September, reports said Ankara expected a $20 billion deposit into Turkish treasury bonds and accounts from Saudi Arabia, following rapprochement between Erdogan and Mohammed bin Salman.

Kilicdaroglu accused both Turkey and the US of failing to defend  democracy against the petro-dollar order. “We reject a system where petro-dollar princes commit murder,” he said. 

Kilicdaroglu vowed a respectable justice system in memory of Jamal Khashoggi.