Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the Saudi authorities had ignored Turkish contacts since the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Aktay told the Shehab News Agency that “the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and Saudi authorities ignored our contacts from the first moment Khashoggi disappeared and did not respond to the calls.”

He added: “As if the Saudi authorities were asleep and there was a strange silence at a time when the news of Khashoggi’s disappearance was spread in the world.” Aktay condemned the Saudi consulate’s announcement to open its doors to the media four days after the incident. He wondered: “Why did not the consulate open its doors at first? Unless there is something that they hid and waited for a few days,” as he put it.

Aktay said that the Saudi authorities’ response, coming four days after Khashoggi’s abduction “does not mean anything,” noting that the silence of the consulate and the Saudi consul himself during the past few days raises many doubts.

Full story: middleeastmonitor.com

Middle East Monitor