Commotion

While we were saying the circle is tightening around Khashoggi's killers, 18 days after the event, a confession came from the Saudi Arabian authorities that Khashoggi had been killed accidentally during a scuffle inside the consulate. That this confession came at this stage is, in a way, a matter of the obvious being stated. By now there was no one left who did not know that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate building.

The most important thing this statement, which says nothing new or unknown about the event, still does not explain is what was done with Khashoggi's murdered body. Of course, now that a confession of killing, even if accidental, has come, it will be possible to reach this information too within a short time. Indeed, the fate of the body becoming known is also a matter of moments.

The scuffle statement, according to the sum of the information that has been obtained, explains no aspect of the event; on the contrary, it generates more questions. One cannot help wondering how a "scuffle" could have occurred between 15 young people, each a bodyguard and combat expert, and a 60-year-old, alone and defenseless Jamal Khashoggi.

And the more one thinks, the more one feels that only one's own intelligence is being mocked. Only the story of an innocent person being lynched can come out of this asymmetric "scuffle." A story of self-defense by this group of 15 against Khashoggi surely cannot come out of it.

Second, the question of why so much time was waited. The lies told about Khashoggi so far have reached a size that will form a separate crime file. It was said by the highest official authorities that Khashoggi left shortly after completing his transactions at the consulate. It was said that where he was is not known.

Within the scope of these statements, Qatar, Iran and Türkiye were accused over the event. In the Saudi Arabian media, incredible campaigns were run about Turan Kışlakçı, Hatice Cengiz and myself, and it was said that we had almost made up the event out of our own heads.

Cengiz's engagement was questioned. We were left with neither any Ikhwan-ism nor any enmity toward Saudi Arabia.

Yet we were only after the truth, and now of course we are after justice. Those who believe in justice truly believe that even the finger that justice cuts will not hurt. Pursuing this event, wanting the truth to come out because of this event, does not require being an enemy in essence to anyone.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who gave a statement to Bloomberg TV 4 days after the event, said that Khashoggi himself had left the consulate after completing his transactions and that he was within Türkiye's area of responsibility, and said that the Turkish official authorities could enter the consulate building and search if they wished. Of course, even the requirement of the challenge in this invitation could only be carried out 9 days later.

Until then we watched with open eyes the cleaning materials and teams going in and out of the consulate in plain view. The Crown Prince's words criticizing Türkiye following this bluff he called that day to defend himself somehow drew nobody's attention. Evidently believing too much that the best defense is attack, bin Salman preferred to answer the criticism he received over the arrests he made in his country of dissidents, writers, academics, scholars and princes by bringing up the arrests in Türkiye and making comparisons.

Bin Salman, claiming that the 1,500 people he had arrested within this scope in the last 3 years were detained not for the purpose of silencing the opposition but on national security grounds, said that "this figure remains low compared with the detentions in Türkiye."

At the time he said this, the 15-person team assigned to savagely kill Khashoggi at the Istanbul Consulate had completed its mission and returned to their homes and posts.

This shameless defense-attack argument against Türkiye was, unfortunately, voiced on many platforms where this event was discussed. Yet no proper answer has been given to any of the questions asked about this event. There is no point in muddying the subject. But we of course do not neglect to note down the psychology revealed by the effort to muddy the subject.

The "scuffle" argument about Khashoggi's death is a hastily produced scenario as the moment when everything will come to light in all its details approaches.

Mass conscience has already decided whether it is convincing. After that, different scenarios began to follow one after another.

Let us say this much: the event will come out in all its clarity. Meanwhile, defensive statements that test public reason and conscience will continue to come one after another.

Türkiye is working for the event to come out in all its openness, without politicizing it, without convicting anyone in advance, without leaving room for the truth to be covered up, and of course for the realization of justice afterward.

The stance it has displayed in managing this process and the path it has followed are watched all over the world with appreciation and admiration.