Daily Times

Friends say Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a proud Arab who wanted to set up a base in his ancestral homeland of Turkey, contributing to the growing community of exiled Arabs who have taken refuge there.

For Khashoggi, a history lover, the growing Arab community and Turkey’s power in the region echoed aspects of the Ottoman empire, when Istanbul was at the center of a rich and multicultural Middle East. With millions of Arab exiles who fled their homes because of wars or oppression, Turkey has become a fertile ground for talent and ideas, a place where Khashoggi could have pursued his own projects, including a pro-democracy group, a media watch group, a forum to translate economic studies and launching online magazines.

Khashoggi was planning to marry his Turkish fiancée on Oct. 3, a day after he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get his divorce from a previous marriage confirmed. He had bought a home in Istanbul and friends said he planned to split his time between there and Virginia, where he had owned a condo since 2008.

He never emerged from the consulate. Saudi authorities said Saturday that he died in a brawl involving visiting officials, an account that has drawn widespread skepticism. Turkish pro-government media say a Saudi hit squad traveled to Turkey to kill the columnist for The Washington Post which has called for an investigation led by a U.N.-appointed panel to determine what happened.

Khashoggi’s killing sent a chilling message to the many exiled Arabs who have taken refuge in Turkey. Several anti-government Arab TV stations broadcast from Turkey and Istanbul’s Arab Media Association has about 800 members. Turkey has also welcomed thousands of members of Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, after its then-President member was ousted from power by the military in 2013. Many Syrian groups opposed to President Bashar Assad have also unsurprisingly converged in neighboring Turkey, where nearly 3 million Syrians have fled to escape the war back home.

Eiad Alhaji, a Syrian filmmaker who was working with Khashoggi on a video about an Ottoman military figure central to Arab-Turkish relations, described their time together after work and interviews.

“We used to go together to sit and talk, two strangers outside our country and society, about what is happening with the Arabs in Turkey and in America. Me as a Syrian, and him as a Saudi Arabian,” said Alhaji.

“He was pained to be living in exile but at the same time, he was glad to be free in his opinion and new life.” Another companion, Fatih Oke, of Istanbul’s Arab Media Association, said Khashoggi was an important adviser to the group and “we had plans to establish some projects.”

Published in Daily Times, October 22^nd 2018.