The murder of a journalist: Why it is proposed to listen to the audio?

The New York Times, very sharply joined the discussions after the Washington Post, and much more openly hinted in connection with the murder of the journalist Jamal Hashoggi: according to the newspaper, in one of the consulate audio cassettes one of the members of the punitive team called in Riyadh, says "tell Raisa." The newspaper considers that the "rais" ( thwe head) is the crown prince Muhammad bin Salman.

It would be right to note that even on October 10, the columnist of the pro-government newspaper "Yeni Safak", Kemal Ozturk, wrote that Turkish intelligence has audio recordings from the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul ("Kaşıkçı olayında Turkiye ne yapacak"? - "What will Turkey do in the Khashoggi case? "). According to the press secretary of the former Speaker of the Majlis, Bülent Arınç, then the former Prime Minister Erdogan and subsequently the General Director of the Anatolian Agency K.Oztürk, Turkey was to interrogate the staff of the consulate who participated in the crime. However, on 17 October, the consul general of Saudi Arabia left Turkey.

In the course of events connected with the assassination of J. Khashoggi, there is a remarkable moment: audio records are in the hands of Turkey, it provides tapes to the Western powers, and these states today insist on the intention to impose an embargo on Saudi Arabia, and tomorrow they say that they will continue to trade with trade-economic relations with it.

Unlike the others, the French Foreign Minister claims that "Erdogan did not give audio recordings," but his Turkish counterpart sharply denied these allegations. Ankara, trying to completely remove King Salman from the blow in this process, at the same time makes hints to the crown prince.

Washington tried not to condemn Muhammad bin Salman, which it considers "its son." But can the finger of the New York Times, who has seriously come into the game of the New York Times, point to Turkey in a gesture that satisfies Turkey? We once wrote: in conditions when the local press almost does not pay attention to this murder (the government press is silent at all), and this question does not leave the agenda of the Western media, how much does it benefit Ankara?

Relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia deteriorated after Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi as a result of a military coup in July 2013 overthrew and arrested President Muhammad Mursi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. For then Riyadh, openly supporting Sisi, later did not refuse to help. And the second time, these relations were aggravated in the summer of 2017, when Mohammed bin Salman became the crown prince.

This happened because Ankara is sure that President Trump Kushner"s son-in-law controls Muhammad bin Salman, and it is precisely because of this that Israel strengthened its position in the region and that, due to Mohammed bin Salman, Turkey"s influence here has weakened. Moreover, it is even claimed that the attempts to create a "Sunni NATO" in the region with the financial support of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Amman were also conceived by Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman. And the Turkish authorities, first of all, from an ideological point of view, cannot agree with the fact that they stayed away from these processes.

And when it comes to the murder of journalist J. Khashoggi, it is impossible for the question not naturally to arise in this context: did the audio recordings convince Turkey that Muhammad bin Salman was directly involved in this crime? And being sure of this, and therefore sharing these records with the countries of the West (and, perhaps, with the media), isn"t it preparing the ground for future direct and open charges?

Fifteen days ago, the Republican Prosecutor General"s Office of Istanbul stated that it could not count on Riyadh during the investigation. The fact that the Prosecutor General"s Office is very carefully and seriously investigating, no one has any doubt. And the fact that Turkey, politically and in the context of international relations, has been striving to use this event with care and skill, is noticeable from the beginning of November; and the New York Times article can be considered one of the proofs of this.