The 'Saudi Affair' in Istanbul Unveils Sunni vs Sunni Rivalry

 Turkey, pursuing its own Islamist agenda and trying to rival Saudi influence in the Sunni world, is just too happy to have discredited the Wahhabi royals.
 Turkey’s message to the Western world was: See the difference between our peaceful Islamism and rogue-state Islamism? Stop discrediting us for our democratic deficit — also, presumably, for “only” imprisoning more than 100 journalists there.
…The Khashoggi murder has already gone beyond a simple spy thriller. Apparently, the Saudis wanted to embarrass Turkey by choosing Istanbul as the crime scene. They also wanted to tell Saudi dissidents across the world that they are not safe in whichever country they may live…Turkey, pursuing its own Islamist agenda and trying to rival Saudi influence in the Sunni world, is just too happy to have discredited the Wahhabi royals. Turkey’s message to the Western world was: See the difference between our peaceful Islamism and rogue-state Islamism? Stop discrediting us for our democratic deficit — also, presumably, for “only” imprisoning more than 100 journalists there.
It will not work. Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League have all declared their support for Saudi Arabia in the “Khashoggi Affair.”
What that should tell Turkish President Erdoğan is that his neo-Ottoman aspiration for Turkish leadership in the Islamic world has once again hit the walls of Middle Eastern reality. All the same, it is fun to watch a Muslim country, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, condemning another Muslim country for the murder of a journalist. (by gatestoneinstitute.org).

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