Erdogan’s Saudi Arabia trip could be a game changer for Middle East

Turkish President Erdogan’s two-day trip to Riyadh will most likely boost bilateral ties but what’s more crucial is that it could change the security situation for the entire region, from Iran to the war in Yemen.

Bilateral relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia had been on ice since the killing of US-Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

“For Turkey, a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia has been important for a long time, above all for economic reasons. The political and the economic situation in Turkey is tense. Saudi Arabia is an important market, on the one hand as a buyer of Turkish products, but also as a potential investor,” Sebastian Sons, an expert with the Germany-based CARPO think tank, told DW.