Erdogan: Turkey shared tapes of Khashoggi killing with Saudi, US, and others

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said officials from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France, and Britain have listened to audio recordings related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

“We gave the recordings, we gave them to Saudi Arabia, we gave them to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the English,” he said in a televised speech.

“They listened to the conversations which took place here, they know,” he said. Officials added that no written documents had been shared.

Erdogan’s comments on Saturday were the first public confirmation of the existence of recordings of the October 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist at the consulate where he had gone to get papers to marry his fiancee.

He called on Saudi Arabia to rid itself of the “stain” by cooperating with Turkey over the investigation.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain documents for his forthcoming marriage.

After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted the 59-year-old had been murdered at the mission in a “rogue” operation.

However, Erdogan has accused the “highest levels” of the Saudi government with ordering the hit, while some officials have pointed the finger at the all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Some Turkish media and officials have said Ankara possessed an audio recording of the murder and it had shared it with the head of the CIA Gina Haspel when she visited Turkey in late October.

But the existence of such a recording has not been officially confirmed.

Khashoggi’s body has not been found, more than a month after he was killed.

An advisor to Erdogan, Yasin Aktay, suggested last week that the body may have been dissolved in acid.

Erdogan was speaking before flying to Paris to attend commemorations marking the anniversary of the end of World War I.