Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives Wednesday in Turkey for the first official visit to the country after nine years of disputes that began with the “Arab Spring” and escalated after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, confirming the visit of Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of his country: “God willing, we will see to what level we can raise relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The first chapter of reconciliation took place in late April, when Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia, where he discussed with the crown prince ways to “develop” relations between the two countries.

Three weeks earlier, a Turkish court decided to dismiss the case of the murder of opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, who was killed in October 2018 at his country’s consulate in Istanbul, where he came to obtain the necessary documents. for his marriage to a Turkish bride.

Ankara handed over the file to the Saudi Arabian authorities, paving the way for a rapprochement with Riyadh.

The second chapter comes out Wednesday as Erdogan hosts Prince Mohammed, who is on a regional tour he started on Monday in Egypt and also brought him to Jordan. The program of the visit has not yet been disclosed, but several agreements will be signed, a senior Turkish official told AFP.

“This visit is one of the most important to Ankara in almost a decade,” said Soner Cagaptai of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He pointed out that the dispute between Riyadh and Ankara dates back to 2013, when President Erdogan supported Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, represented by Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Turkey’s ally Qatar for three years, and then the Khashoggi affair the following year, contributed to the poisoning of relations between Ankara and Riyadh.

At the time, the Turkish president accused the “higher echelons” in the Saudi government of having given the order to carry out the assassination at the hands of Saudi elements, but excluded the Saudi king from the charge.

Less than a year before the presidential election scheduled for mid-June 2023, and as inflation erodes the purchasing power of Turks, Erdogan is multiplying initiatives to normalize relations with several regional powers, especially Saudi Arabia, Israel and the UAE.

“Erdogan put his pride aside a little. He has one goal – to win the upcoming elections,” Chagaptai said, noting that President Atlekri, who visited the UAE in mid-February, “is trying in every way to attract investment from the Gulf countries. “

According to public opinion polls, the Turkish president faces a significant decline in the value of the Turkish lira and an annual inflation rate of 73.5 percent in May, casting doubt on his re-election feasibility.

“You gave them the Khashoggi case to Saudi Arabia in exchange for money, like a beggar,” said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition party.