Erdogan, Eager to End Enmities, Exchanges Expressions of Encouragement, Empathy

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday held their second phone call in less than a month, as Ankara looks to strengthen its deteriorating ties with the Gulf kingdom. On Wednesday, Turkish officials will travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian representatives in another attempt to mend relations with a regional power. According to the Turkish government, Erdogan and King Salman discussed their bilateral ties and assessed the “steps to be taken to further cooperation.” The two countries fell out after US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was lured into the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in 2018 and brutally dismembered. Ankara severed ties with Cairo back in 2013, following the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi by the then-commander in chief and current president, Abdel Fattah a-Sisi. Morsi, affiliated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, was closely aligned with Turkey.