Turkey Says It Has Shared Recording Of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder With The United States


Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday claimed that his country has shared the Khashoggi tapes — purported audio recordings from the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents — with the United States, as well as the UK, France, and Germany, reports the BBC.

Since the reported murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi in Istanbul’s Saudi consulate last month, Turkey has claimed to have in its possession audio recordings from the moment he was killed. Turkey says that the audio recordings implicate the Saudis, who maintain that the murder was the result of a rogue operation by some senior officials. Under increasing international pressure, Saudi Arabia acquiesced to conducting a mutual investigation with Turkey, but as the Inquisitr reported earlier today, that investigation has been called off with Turkey complaining that the Middle Eastern country is not serious about uncovering the truth.

Following the breakdown of the investigation, Turkish president Erdogan claimed that he had shared the audio recordings of the murder with Turkey’s western allies, and now it was up to them to conclude what had happened in Istanbul’s Saudi consulate last month.

“We gave the recordings, we gave them to Saudi Arabia, we gave them to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the English.

They listened to the conversations which took place here, they know.”

Turkey claims that a 15-member team was sent by Saudi Arabia to carry out the killing, an allegation the Middle Eastern country denies. Instead, the Wahhabi nation says that it was an operation carried out by senior Saudi officials without the knowledge of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and has so far arrested 18 Saudi nationals over the murder. But Erdogan said that Turkey is of the firm opinion that Khashoggi’s murderer belonged to the 15-member group and that his/their identity was known to Saudi Arabia.

“There’s no need to distort this issue, they know for certain that the killer, or the killers, is among these 15 people. Saudi Arabia’s government can disclose this by making these 15 people talk,” he said.

So far, none of the nations which Erdogan claims to have sent the recordings to have spoken about the matter. However, the US announced this week that it would stop refueling Saudi aircraft being used to bomb Yemen, while France has announced that it would impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia. The details of what that would entail have not been made public. The UK and Germany meanwhile continue to pressure Saudi Arabia, with the former saying that Jamal Khashoggi’s murder has given Saudi’s western allies a reason to pressure Saudis on other issues, including the war in Yemen.

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