Erdogan addresses Khashoggi killing, meets Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing is a worldwide matter never seen as a "political issue."

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a statement as he holds a press conference within the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 01, 2018.
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President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a statement as he holds a press conference within the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 01, 2018.

The killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is not an issue of Turkey but the whole world, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

Erdogan said Turkey never saw the killing of the journalist as a political issue, adding that the incident is and will remain as "flagrant murder."

The Turkish leader stated that Ankara mobilised all efforts since the brutal killing of the Washington Post columnist inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

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Despite repeated denials from the Saudi authorities, the killing was revealed due to Ankara's determined stance, he added.

He underlined that neither the Islamic world nor the international community would be satisfied until the revealing of all those responsible for the killing.

Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh later said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.

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Meeting US's Trump

Erdogan also met with his US counterpart Donald Trump. He said US arming YPG militants does not eliminate Daesh, rather encourages terror groups even further. 

"A terror group can't be eliminated by a second terror group as history shows us clearly," he said. 

The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK which is designated a terror group by Turkey, the US and the EU.

The closed-door meeting between two leaders, which lasted 50 minutes, was the second time Erdogan and Trump met in Argentina's capital on the G20 sidelines.

Trump said there is no definitive evidence that Saudi Arabia's crown prince is complicit in the killing. He says the kingdom is an important ally that has helped keep oil prices low.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince must have at least known about the plot to kill Khashoggi.

Erdogan meets Putin

Erdogan also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday suggesting he should hold another summit to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib province where the two countries are trying to create a sustainable demilitarised zone.

The Syrian regime's ally Russia, and Turkey, which backs Syrian opposition, agreed in September to create a demilitarised zone around the opposition-held northwestern enclave of Idlib. But exchanges of shelling have been common since then and the first air strikes since the deal hit the area on Nov. 

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