How Jamal Khashoggi got caught in the crossfire between two rival nations

News of Jamal Khashoggi’s death has reverberated around the world. But, as Borzou Daragahi explains, at the heart of his murder is the intertwined story of a prince and a populist​

A marked man? (AFP)

Jamal Khashoggi felt safe in Turkey, comfortable enough to buy an apartment in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul and make plans to partially settle down there. Turkey was not only his Saudi clan’s ancestral home, but also the nation of his future wife, Hatice Cengiz.

The 59-year-old Saudi journalist also felt an affinity for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, despite what critics describe as Turkey’s authoritarian drift, and appreciated his Justice and Development Party’s brand of populist, Islamist-rooted politics far more than that of Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“He felt real simpatico with Erdogan,” says Maggie Mitchellhe Salem, a friend of Khashoggi. “There was some kind of bond there. In how he viewed Erdogan, it was with an eye towards what he had been during his earlier political career. Jamal saw there was some of that still there, in a way many of us don’t. That’s how he was, though. Jamal was always full of hope.”