A parting of ways between the US and Saudi Arabia?

Although the Khashoggi murder was carried out using all the resources of the Saudi Arabian state, those who committed the crime could, whatever their positions within the state, in theory have been distinguished from the state. Managing the process in such a way that this murder would not be attributed to the Saudi Arabian state would have been possible if the state had handed over those involved in the murder to justice, at whatever level they were. But at the stage we have reached, Saudi Arabia as a state is gradually losing this chance.

The opinions held from the start that MBS is the chief culprit and instigator of the incident are growing firmer in every quarter, and as they firm up, this situation begins to turn into a serious element of pressure against the Saudi Arabian state. That MBS's time-buying attitude will not work is understood from the fact that, as time passes, things turn further against him.

The expectation that "in time everyone will forget this incident, we will spend a bit more money, fix our image, and even make an extra image as we wish" is not materializing. This policy, which the Crown Prince had the chance to try for the first time at the G20 Summit, poured gasoline, in a way he never expected, on a campaign against himself. The treatment he faced first in Egypt and Tunisia before Argentina, and then in Algeria and Mauritania, shows that things will get worse with every passing day.

In the meantime one must also take into account the resolve that formed among all members, from Republicans to Democrats, following the briefing given by the CIA director in the American Congress. Likewise, the issuing of an arrest warrant by red notice for two people closest to the Crown Prince in the investigation being conducted by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office gave a strong sign that nothing has yet run out on this front either.

Beril Dedeoğlu's article yesterday on what kind of role the Khashoggi affair has begun to play in the dimension of international relations, and especially on what kinds of pressures Saudi Arabia is subject to and from whom, is very meaningful; I recommend that you read it.

Hearing that this incident gives some a chance to pressure Saudi Arabia on some of its policies may rightly make one ask "weren't these people always acting together anyway?" Indeed, perhaps from this point on we need to question the nature of Saudi Arabia's dependency relations with the USA a bit more realistically. However much they act together, nothing proceeds entirely as the USA wants or entirely as Saudi Arabia wants. But within this cooperation they can at times drag each other into situations that neither of them expected or calculated at the outset.

The truth is that what is being questioned on the USA's agenda right now is what kind of quagmire may have been sunk into in the Middle East through excessive trust in SA's alliance.

It appears that SA, despite all the financial support it gave, sold the USA its simultaneous hostility to Iran, to the Ikhwan and to democracy at a very high price. The comradeship on the road taken in Saudi Arabia's opposition to Iran and its passion for normalizing relations with Israel makes the USA an accomplice in the Middle East geography to the massacres in Yemen, the anti-democratic coups, the systematic human rights violations and the Khashoggi murder. Beril Dedeoğlu also summarizes this whole process with the sentence: "The Saudis used the power they got from the USA in a way that also harms the USA."

Everyone in the USA is aware of this right now, and ways of turning back from this position are being sought. This search seems likely to determine MBS's future too.

Sean Penn's Khashoggi Documentary

The Khashoggi affair has become a subject that attracts the interest not only of politics but also of the world of art. From now on we can say that it will direct the interest of many circles, from cinema to literature and from poetry to music, toward different productions. Quite a lot of poetry has been written, quite a lot of stories have been written on this. As the interest multiplies and diversifies, we should expect the subject to lead to a serious change of mentality and atmosphere.

Last Tuesday the Oscar-winning famous Hollywood actor Sean Penn came to Turkey for the preparatory work of a documentary he had decided to make on the Khashoggi murder. In fact this visit had been planned long before, and an appointment to meet me had been made 20 days earlier. However, because Penn's house is very close to where the big fire in California broke out, he could not enter his own house for a long time, and because his mother's house was also affected, if only slightly, by the fire, he had to postpone his visit.

Sean Penn is a sensitive artist who is generally known for his opposition to the unjust policies of his own country and who also has an activist side.

He found the stance of the Trump administration, covering up this murder in return for money, shameful on behalf of his country, and he has taken on this work to express his reaction against it. He believes that this matter must remain on the agenda until justice is done, and he came to Turkey to listen firsthand to the places where this matter took place and the actors involved in the incident, and to prepare for his documentary film.

I hosted him in my office at the AK Party Headquarters. That office was in fact the very setting where I received the first phone call from Hatice Cengiz saying that Khashoggi had entered the consulate a few hours earlier and still had not come out, and where I conducted all the phone traffic to inform the authorities of the matter. I witnessed how, when he heard this, Penn tried to examine the whole setting carefully and with a distinct sensitivity.

Sean Penn's art and political activism truly impressed me greatly. The responsibility and sensitivity he displays in doing something for the values he believes in, whatever position he is in, is greatly admirable. In case there are those who ask, let me say: to express that he never approaches the matter commercially, he has stated that if there is any income from the documentary, he will donate it to a foundation or an activity to be established in Khashoggi's name.

Of course, upon the news of Penn's visit and his decision to make a documentary, the troll army and media affiliated with SA and BAE immediately began a major smear campaign. In the campaign, they left out neither Penn's secret Muslimhood, nor his terror support, nor his Ikhwan membership.

It is also known that Penn supported the Arab Spring process. That is why these trolls tried to produce a perception by placing separate pictures of both me and him at Tahrir Square side by side. What message such a composition gives, and to whom, is well known.

There are reports and information that Sean Penn's interest in the Khashoggi murder in this way will continue with other examples.

These examples are also signs that the dimensions of the incident will grow much larger. When the time comes, we will share these developments too.