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 Saudi Arabia |  Turkey |
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| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Ankara | Embassy of Turkey, Riyadh |
Relations betweenSaudi Arabia andTurkey have long fluctuated between cooperation to enmity. Since the 19th century, the two nations have always had a complicated relationship. While Turkey and Saudi Arabia are major economic partners,[1] the two have periods of friendly and tense political relationship, stemming partially from the historic enmity.[2] Currently, relations between the two countries have grown significantly stronger, despite their differing geopolitical interests.[3]
Saudi Arabia has an embassy inAnkara and a consulate general inIstanbul, and Turkey has an embassy inRiyadh and a consulate general inJeddah. Both countries are members of theWorld Trade Organization,G20 and theOrganisation of Islamic Cooperation.
According to a 2013Pew global opinion poll, 26% ofTurks express a favourable view of Saudi Arabia while 53% express an unfavourable view.[4] After theArab Spring, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Turkey mounted, with an increasing proxy conflict emerging between the two states.[5] The relations began to significantly recover after the end of theQatar diplomatic crisis, driven by mutual interests in countering Iranian influence.[6]
Historically, the relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia has always varied between cooperation and distrust to uncertainty and rapprochement. This is because of the historical enmity between the two nations dated from the Ottoman era.
In the 19th century, the Ottomans entered into a serious conflict withHouse of Saud, the first Saudi state which resulted in theOttoman–Saudi War. The war is seen in Saudi Arabia as the first attempt to create an independent state from theOttoman Empire, while in Turkey, it is often considered to be the war against the Salafi movement. This led to a brutal military reprisal by the Ottoman rulers, which saw the destruction of theFirst Saudi State and the executions of many religious leaders of the Saudis. For this reason, there is an eternal enmity between the Turks and the Saudis, which is reflected by recent revisionist campaigns in both countries.[7][8][9][10] The Ottoman Empire's collapse following theWorld War I would eventually lead to the Saudi resurgence and future establishment of modern Saudi Arabia.
TheHashimite rulers of theHejaz pledged allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan in 1517 following the Ottoman conquest ofEgypt, placing the holy cities ofMecca andMedina under Ottoman Protection until theArab revolt in 1916 whenSharif Hussayn of Mecca expelled them with the aid of Britain. This success was short-lived however, and soon the Saudis expelled the Hashemites from both cities and most of the Hejaz; reducing Hashemite's hegemony to the modern Kingdom ofJordan (though Hashemite monarchs ruledIraq for several decades in the mid 20th century).
Relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia began in 1932, after the creation of the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the first stage of the relations, Saudi Arabia and Turkey shared a cordial relationship as Turkish leaderMustafa Kemal Atatürk was interested in keeping Turkey safe and friendly with the international community, and tried to avoid religious discord.[11] Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia maintained neutrality duringWorld War II.
In the 1950s, during theCold War, Turkey joined the short-livedBaghdad Pact, an anti-communist military alliance, while Saudi Arabia, despite also sharing similar views, declined to participate and criticized the pact for its ineffectiveness to deal with theSoviet Union.[12]
With the eruption ofIranian Revolution in 1979 and subsequentIran–Iraq War, both Turkey and Saudi Arabia were the main supporters ofSaddam Hussein's Iraq, albeit Turkey quietly supported Iraq and was skeptical to the Shia clergy ruling Iran despite maintaining a neutral face, while Saudi Arabia openly supported Iraq with lethal weapons and finance.[13][14][15] In April 1979, Saudi Arabia provided financial assistance ($250 million) to Turkey to help the latter's attempts to overcome the ongoing economical and financial crisis.[16]
In 1991, with the outbreak ofGulf War, Turkey and Saudi Arabia supported the United States against Iraq, although Turkey didn't participate in the coalition, Ankara opened its air space to aid the coalition, while Saudi Arabia was part of the coalition.[17][18] Also in the 1990s decade, Turkey and Saudi Arabia were sympathetic to theChechen Republic of Ichkeria against Russia, but did not recognize it.[19][20]
Both Ankara and Riyadh were not friendly to Saddam's Iraq. In 2003, however, both Turkey and Saudi Arabia openly opposed theinvasion of Iraq.[21][18]
Turkey and Saudi Arabia initially found themselves in alliance when theArab Spring erupted, mostly because of theSyrian civil war as Ankara and Riyadh were openly opposingBashar al-Assad, and thus Saudi Arabia and Turkey both financed various anti-Assad forces in the conflict hoping to drive the Syrian dictator out.[22][23][24] However, Turkey also demonstrated support forMuslim Brotherhood (MB), which was opposed by Saudi Arabia, and this had created an uneasy sentiment among Riyadh. In 2013, theEgyptian coup broke out when MB member and then-President of Egypt,Mohamed Morsi, was forcibly removed by pro-SaudiAbdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkey had condemned the move, but it was the first sign of divergence between Ankara and Riyadh.[25][26]
In October 2014, Saudi Arabia successfully campaigned against a Turkish bid for non-permanent membership of theUnited Nations Security Council due to Saudi opposition to the Turkish stance on the MB.[27]
Due to the2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis, the relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia faced problems, with Turkey supportingQatar against Saudi Arabia in the ongoing diplomatic dispute.
Geoeconomics expert M. Nicolas J. Firzli has argued that the Turkish government has sought to use the crisis to its own advantage, by advancing anexpansionistNeo-Ottoman agenda at the expense of theGulf Cooperation Council:[28]
Turkey and a resurgent Iran for their part are cynically using the festering crisis to advance a distinct agenda: rebuilding military and economic beachheads along the ‘eastern flank’ of theArabian Peninsula from Oman to Southern Iraq, a part of the world from which they were forced out by theRoyal Navy in 1917, precisely one hundred years ago. The local chess board is getting crowded with too many avid players, at a time when many British and American policy makers seem to have lost interest in that part of the world: this doesn’t bode well for the long-term stability of theMENA.
Saudi Arabia, in response, has threatened to impose sanctions against Turkey, and has conducted discussions with theUAE on the topic of curbing "Turkish expansionist policy". In turn, Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Saudi Arabia of being non-Islamic andheretics.[citation needed]
On 1 March 2018, Saudi Arabia'sMBC channels stopped broadcastingTurkish soap operasdubbed in Arabic to achieve the highest Arab interest.[29]
In March 2018, Saudi Crown PrinceMohammad bin Salman referred to Turkey as part of a "triangle of evil" alongsideIran and Muslim Brotherhood.[30][31]
In August 2018, Turkey backed Saudi Arabia in itsdispute with Canada, rejecting the Canadian actions as a "form of interference in other countries’ internal affairs".[32]
On 2 October 2018, Saudi journalist andThe Washington Post writerJamal Khashoggi waskilled in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul; the move was considered as a turning point on the future hostility between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It has been widely alleged that he was killed by the Saudi government, including by Erdogan—although Erdogan at first refrained from criticizing Saudi Arabia directly and instead suggested the blame lies withCrown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.[33][34]
After the incident, Prince Mohammad rejected the concept of a rift with Turkey, stating, "Many are trying to … drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. … They will not be able to do it as long as there is a King Salman, a Mohammad bin Salman and a President Erdogan."[35]
Almost a month after Khashoggi's death, Erdogan directly accused the Saudi government of murdering the journalist. Erdogan said, "We know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government." He also said that "the puppet masters behind Khashoggi's killing" would be exposed.[36]Yasin Aktay, a Turkish official and adviser to Erdogan believes Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after being dismembered. He said, "The reason they dismembered Khashoggi's body was to dissolve his remains more easily. Now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporised it."[37]
Turkey and Saudi Arabia also clash for influence regarding other Muslim countries, notablySudan. Sudan was once a former ally of Iran, but has cut off relations with Iran since 2015 to support Saudi Arabia's war efforts in Yemen. However, Sudanese fear of Saudi Arabian influence facilitated then-dictatorOmar al-Bashir to get closer to Turkey, resulting in the lease ofSuakin to Turkish contractors.[38][39] According from Turkish media, Saudi Arabia has been deeply skeptical over Turkish presence in Sudan, out of fear that Turkey is attempting to take Sudan away from Saudi influence and threaten Saudi Arabia's security.[40]
Saudi Arabia condemned the2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria.[41] In response, Erdogan criticised the death toll in theSaudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war.[42]
The movieKingdoms of Fire, aired by MBC in 2019, was partially financed by Saudi Arabia, further exacerbated by the portrayal of the Ottoman Turks as violent, ruthless and uncivilized people. This had drawn criticism in Turkey.[43][44]
Turkey and Saudi Arabia have also clashed vying for influence in theLibyan Civil War. Turkey has been throwing significant support to the Islamist-backedGovernment of National Accord inTripoli, but Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and the UAE, has supportedKhalifa Haftar'sHouse of Representatives inTobruk.[45][46] The Turkish actions has gained minor diplomatic support from Iran, which deepened the mistrust with Saudi Arabia.[47]
The2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, where Iranian generalQasem Soleimani was assassinated by the United States, had revealed the complicated nature of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, with both countries secretly approving the airstrike with hope to remove a grave threat from Iran to both countries' ambitions in the Middle East.[48][49][50]
In February 2020, Saudi Foreign MinisterAdel al-Jubeir accused Turkey of financing and sponsoring the "extremist militias" in Somalia, Libya and Syria,[51] Saudi Arabia also moved to block all Turkish websites in Saudi Arabia. In response, Ankara announced it would block all Saudi and Emirati websites in the country.[52]
In September 2020, during the2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Saudi Arabian TV channelAl Arabiya had broadcast the speech of Armenian PresidentArmen Sargsyan accusing Turkey and Azerbaijan of inflaming the conflict.[53] In response, Turkish leader Erdoğan accused Arab countries of destabilising peace in Middle East and Caucasus, causing anti-Turkish sentiment to spread in Saudi Arabia as Saudi officials called for boycott against Turkish goods.[54] This was rebutted by the Saudi who said they were committed to international treaties relating to trade. But the boycott seemed to have caused serious inflictions into the trade, asMaersk advised his clients to be aware of the Saudi ban on Turkish goods, and also Turkish business associations in Turkey appealed to the Turkish Government to find a solution for the conflict. It appeared that not only Turkish goods are targeted but also products "Made in Turkey" from foreign companies.[55]
Saudi Arabia had traditionally supported Turkey over theArmenian genocide. However, due to the increasing deterioration of Saudi–Turkish relations, Saudi Arabia has started to raise the Armenian issue. In 2019, Saudi Arabia agreed to sponsor recognition of the genocide in theUnited States Congress, whereby Saudi PrincessReema bint Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's first female ambassador to the United States, condemned Turkey.[56] The genocide has been formally recognized by the United States in statements, resolutions, and legal submissionsseveral times, including in 1951, 1975, 1984, and 1996, before being officially recognized in a resolution in both houses in 2019United States resolution on Armenian Genocide.[57] However, Saudi Arabia does not officially recognize Armenian Genocide.
In August 2020,Mossad's chiefYossi Cohen, on his statement to the Saudi, Egyptian and Emirati counterparts, had openly named Turkey as a new threat for the peace of the region, and even further single out a number of allies Turkey would gain potential support like Azerbaijan and Qatar, the former has strong relations with Israel since 1990s.[58] Both Saudi Arabia, Israel, Greece, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have viewedTurkish expansionism under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan represent a new danger for the Middle East since 2018, due to ongoing conflicts with Turkey in Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Libya, with Saudi expert Saud al-Sarhan viewing it as mirroring the Ottoman pan-Islamist policies in World War I.[59]
In an interview in October 2020, Saudi Prince and former Saudi ambassador to the United States,Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, blasted the Palestinian leadership for its incompetence as well as singling Turkey, alongside Iran, accusing Ankara of abusing the Palestinian cause for Turkish profits.[60][61] The Turkish government of Erdoğan has recently lashed out Saudi Arabia and other Arab states for betraying Palestine.[62]
TheTurkish Football Federation reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia to host the2023 Turkish Super Cup betweenGalatasaray andFenerbahçe.[63] The match was scheduled to take place at theAl-Awwal Park in Riyadh, in December 2023. This decision, however, sparked significant backlash from Turkish fans as they strongly advocated for theintercontinental derby, recognized as the biggest football match in Turkey, to be played in Turkey in commemoration of the100th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.[64]
Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, requested to warm up wearing t-shirts featuringMustafa Kemal Atatürk, and carrying banners with his quotes such as "Peace at Home, Peace in the World" and "How happy is the one who says I am a Turk", in the opening ceremony. However, Saudi Arabian officials, citing international regulations and agreements previously made with the Turkish Football Federation, refused to incorporate these requests into the existing protocol before the match.[65] In response to this disagreement, both sides refused to play, resulting in the cancellation of the match. The clubs' decision not to play received widespread support across Turkey.[66][67][68]
Erdogan blamed the Turkish opposition for harming relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Erdogan defended Saudi Arabia as a brotherly country and an important trade partner.[69]
Following the election ofJoe Biden as president of the United States in November 2020, Saudi Arabia, whose government had been given a free hand by theDonald Trump administration, and Turkey, whose economy had been additionally hit by Saudi Arabia's unofficial trade embargo on Turkish goods, appeared to make tentative attempts at rapprochement.[70][71][72][73][74] However, Turkey's support of theMuslim Brotherhood combined with Saudi Arabia's emerging alliance with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the two fellow Arab nations that had been openly hostile to Turkey, and alsowith Israel, Cyprus and Greece, were said to make prospects of such rapprochement dubious.[70][71][75][76] Azerbaijan relations withSaudi Arabia also deteriorated but Azerbaijan relations withTurkey remain close.
In the beginning of 2021, Turkey's leadership was especially concerned and alarmed by rapprochementbetween Saudi Arabia and Greece, Turkey's arch-enemy in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey's hopes for reconciliation with Saudi Arabia were believed to have been dashed in mid-March 2021, as SaudiF-15C fighter jets landed in the Greek island of Crete to participate in a training exercise with Greece, a move being seen as Saudi Arabia's response in kind to Turkey's policies in Saudi Arabia's neighbourhood.[77]
According to CNN, Turkey's presidentErdogan said in January 2022 that his first visit to Saudi Arabia since 2017 will be in February 2022. President Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia on 23 June 2022 and met Mohammed bin Salman and they want to boost their economic relations. Emirati-Turkish reconciliation in 2021, followed by Turkey's decision to move Khashoggi case to the Saudi judicial system and lack of support fromBiden administration to Saudi Arabia, paved a way for Saudi-Turkish reconciliation efforts.[78][79] Following the talks between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan in June, the two countries said they discussed improving relations and investment in sectors from energy to defence among others.[80] Saudi Arabia pledged to increase its assistance and boost Turkish economy aftermath of the2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.[81][82]
Relations between the two countries continued to improve following the overthrow ofBashar al-Assad, aimed at limiting Iranian influence. Although Syria was readmitted to the Arab League, the Saudis remained uneasy about Assad's ties to both Iran and theHouthis in Yemen.[83][84]
Saudi Arabia and Turkey have both shown interest inBRICS, but neither has officially joined as of 2025. Saudi Arabia was invited to join as a full member.
Turkey has played a very edgy role in theIran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict.[85] Turkey is engaged in a separate proxy conflict with Iran, which backs anti-Turkish forces inSyria,Iraq,Libya, theSouth Caucasus, and other regions. Saudi Arabia and Turkey are both nearly completely Sunni, but their experiences over the Salafist movement, rivalry over leadership of the Islamic world, and a recentneo-Ottoman outlook in Turkey has caused extreme distrust between the two countries. Turkey has rejected Saudi requests to join theYemeni Civil War, but Turkey supports the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.[86][87] Turkey and Saudi Arabia often fluctuate between antagonism and alliance. During theSyrian Civil War, Turkey and Saudi Arabia support theSyrian opposition against the Iranian-backed PresidentBashar al-Assad, but Turkey has sought to back the moderate forces, and Saudi Arabia has supported the radicals in the opposition and so tensions are caused between both countries.[88][89] The Russian intervention forces Turkey and Saudi Arabia to have a level of compromise, but mutual distrust has hampered the process.
Turkey has been traditionally refrained from funding Islamic schools, but since the 2010s, it has increasingly funded Islamic schools and resulted in the Saudi perception that Turkey is attempting to eradicate Saudi-fundedmadrasah.[90] Turkey is attempting to limit Iranian influence but also similarly dislikes Saudi influence.
Since start ofRussian invasion of Ukraine, both Turkey and Saudi Arabia have deepened their economic ties with Russia, possibly as a counterbalance to Iran's influence on Russia.[91]
Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia supported Syrian opposition's victory againstBashar al-Assad. Both countries were against Iran's influence in Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey were among the first countries to welcome the new administration inSyria.[92][93]
In May 2025,Trump administration agreed to remove American sanctions on Syria after meetingAhmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh.Trump said that after discussing the situation withMohammed bin Salman andErdoğan (joined the meeting via video call), he decided to lift sanctions on Syria. Unlike the previousBiden administration, PresidentTrump maintains good relations withMohammed bin Salman andErdoğan.[94][95][96][97] It was in the interest of both countries, as well as the United States, to focus on counter-terrorism and going against Iranian threats.[98][99]
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