Saudi-Turkey dispute affects economy

The chairman of the Chamber’s board, Ajlan Al-Ajlan, warned against the dangers of business practice in Turkey, in a Tweet.

He said that several Saudi investors have complained about their assets being under threat while the Turkish authorities not doing enough to protect them.

Al-Ajlan referred to the security environment in Turkey as turbulent and claimed that Saudi businessmen were subject to “influential parties” blackmail, and Saudi tourists were increasingly victims of “cases of harassment and fraud.”

Earlier this month, Prince Faisal bin Bandar, the influential ruler of Riyadh, was spotted refusing a cup of coffee when he learned that it was Turkish-made. A member of the royal family, Prince Abdullah bin Sultan Al Saud, shared the video and praised calls for boycotting Turkish goods.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, led a campaign forcing Saudis to reverse their initial denial of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and blaming rogue security officials. But, this did not prevent Turkey from leaking a set of evidence to the public, and other set presented to the concerned states. This set includes a voice recording of the crime, which appears to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Read: Houthis deny targeting Makkah, accuse Saudis of lying

At first, the Crown Prince sought to defuse the crisis, calling Erdogan and seeking to meet. Yet, Turkey went on discrediting Bin Salman, in an attempt to urge the US to turn its back on him and his father, King Salman, to abandon him. However, nothing happened and the Crown Prince is at war with Ankara.

When the Saudi boycott of Turkey started last November, the Saudis topped the list of foreigners buying Turkish estates, Bloomberg reported. Within weeks they fell to the sixth, with a 37 per cent decline in purchases. The growth fuelled by construction has been at the heart of President Erdogan’s economic strategy. The Turkish economy is currently in recession.