Why Jamal Khashoggi's ruthless killing is a global issue

Saudi Heir Apparent Mohamed bin Salman, better known as MBS, has turned from a US opportunity into a Western liability, says Taha Ozhan, former chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Turkey’s parliament, in his article for Turkish press, titled: “Why Jamal Khashoggi's ruthless killing is a global issue”.

I wasn't planning to write about the barbaric murder of my friend, Jamal Khashoggi. We were supposed to be sharing a panel at a conference two weeks from now.

The Saudi journalist, who disappeared on October 2 while inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, has been executed by a hit squad with Daesh-like barbarity. Saudi officials have denied any involvement in his disappearance and say that he left the consulate soon after arriving. However they have not presented any evidence to corroborate their claim and say that video cameras at the consulate were not recording at the time.

Some may think that a murder at the Saudi consulate, which - according to the rules of diplomacy - is considered Saudi territory, is merely a Saudi problem. However, this incident may create the perception that any Saudi diplomatic mission could be a potential crime scene.

Dictatorships, Israeli massacres, US interventions, and terrorism are hardly alien to the West Asian region. Khashoggi’s killing, however, combines different elements of almost all these atrocities put together.

The dominating geopolitical climate is what gave birth to the Daesh mindset in the first place, and consequently, the methods reportedly used to kill Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Only if we are able to understand this poisonous ecosystem in its entirety can we grasp the mindset ruling in Riyadh, the arrogance of Washington, the racism of Israel and the smugness of the Persian Gulf.

Those ruling in Riyadh, who, according to remarks earlier this month by President Donald Trump, would survive just two weeks without US support, followed the same logic and gave Khashoggi a similar lifespan. In doing so, an innocent and defenceless man has been murdered.

The issue cannot be simply reduced to the silencing of Khashoggi, who was an activist and journalist. He posed no real threat to the Saudi regime. Khashoggi was butchered in the same way Daesh commits aimless and perverted murders against innocent people.

The prevailing mindset in US and European capitals cannot be absolved of blame. By avoiding the major geopolitical issues in the region and obsessing over a simple problem of "whether or not women can drive cars in Saudi Arabia", they have played a role in feeding the toxic geopolitical climate.

In the meantime, MBS is acting in tandem with the US president, wreaking havoc across the region, from Yemen and Palestine to Syria and Lebanon. This sense of recklessness extended to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October when Khashoggi vanished into that building.

There are no guarantees that the consequences of such irresponsible behaviour will be limited to Istanbul; it may easily be extended to other Saudi diplomatic missions around the globe.

Khashogghi was a Saudi citizen and a US resident, well-known within the circles of Washington's political and media elite. The consequences of his ruthless killing will reverberate worldwide.

Just as there is no guarantee that the mindset that planned Khashoggi's killing will stop with his death, there is no sign that Saudi Arabia, as a natural ally of the Trump-Netanyahu axis of lunacy, will begin acting responsibly. This incident also potentially heralds the death of Turkey-Saudi Arabia relations at the hands of Riyadh. We are past the short-term point of no return, and Riyadh's provocations are entirely to blame.

From this point onwards, Saudi Arabia’s steps will determine the fate of bilateral relations. But we should not forget that the impact of Khashoggi's killing goes far beyond the Ankara-Riyadh axis. The world must take responsibility and react accordingly. Trump has given the green light to MBS’ Middle East policies. But the rest of the world must not tag along.

The Saudi Heir Apparent entered the global stage not long before Trump was elected president. But, unlike MBS, Trump was a known figure across the world due to his global mega projects. The young MBS, whose name was almost always mentioned in conjunction with Aramco, was a newcomer to world politics.

In the West, MBS was perceived as a long-term ruler with an iron fist that suits a troubled region like West Asia. But more importantly, he was also perceived as a short-term IPO (initial public offering) opportunity.

MBS had plans to sell about five percent of Aramco, Saudi Arabia's national oil company. The initial public offering (IPO) was expected to raise as much as $100bn - but uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Aramco deal since August was a sure sign of Saudi government dysfunction.

When MBS imposed himself as Heir Apparent on his father last year, the New York Times commentator, Tom Friedman, claimed that "Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring" had started and that the prince had "big plans for his society".

Now, MBS’ so-called “big plans” have materialised in the form of a failed IPO for Aramco, the detention of scores of family members and businessmen in a luxury hotel, and most recently the alleged crime in Istanbul.

If anything, it was Khashoggi who was the exception to the mindset ruling Riyadh, preventing the term "Saudi journalist" from becoming an oxymoron. The world must show that legitimacy has no price tag and it should now come together to isolate Mr IPO.