Turki bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, تركي الثاني بن عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ''Turkī aṯ ṯānī bin ʿAbdulʿazīz ʿĀl Suʿūd'') (1934–11 November 2016) was a Saudi Arabian politician and businessman. A member of the
House of Saud, he was the full brother of
King Fahd
Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Fahd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', ; 1920, 1921 or 1923 – 1 August 2005) was a Saudi Arabian politician who was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia fro ...
and
King Salman
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سلمان بن عبد العزیز آل سعود, , ; born 31 December 1935) is King of Saudi Arabia, reigning since 2015, and served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022. The 25th son of Kin ...
.
Early life and education
Prince Turki was born in 1934.
He was a member of the
Sudairi Seven
The Sudairi Seven ( ar, السديريون السبعة, ''As Sudayriyyūn as Sabʿah''), also spelled ''Sudairy'' or ''Sudayri'', is the commonly used name for a powerful alliance of seven full brothers within the Saudi royal family. They are al ...
, a powerful faction of brothers within the Al Saud. His parents were
King Abdulaziz
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...
and
Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi
Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi ( ar, حصة بنت أحمد السديري; 1900–1969) was one of the wives of King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, with whom she had seven sons and four daughters. Her sons included two future Saudi kings, Fahd and Sa ...
. He was known as Turki the second because he was the second son of King Abdulaziz named "Turki". The
first Prince Turki was Abdulaziz's first son who died in 1919 due to
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
.
[
Prince Turki studied at the ]Princes' School
Princes' School is a school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
History
The Princes' School was established by King Ibn Saud specifically to ensure a high level of education for members of the House of Saud and sons of other foremost Saudis. In 1356 H (corr ...
established by his father.
Career
Turki bin Abdulaziz assumed the Riyadh principality delegation on 10 October 1957, because his brother Salman, governor of Riyadh (later King Salman), travelled with King Saud
Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سعود بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Suʿūd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 15 January 1902 – 23 February 1969) was King of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 ...
to Lebanon.[ In 1960 he also served as the acting governor when Prince Salman was on leave. Turki bin Abdulaziz was appointed deputy defense minister on 24 July 1969 by a royal order. His tenure lasted until 1978 when he was forced to resign from office due to his marriage to Hind Al Fassi.
]
Controversy
After his falling-out with other princes and joining with the free princes group, Turki bin Abdulaziz moved to Cairo and lived there in self-imposed exile for a time. However, other research on the Free Princes Movement
The Free Princes Movement ( ar, حركة الأمراء الأحرار; al-umara’ al-ahrar) was a Saudi liberal political movement that existed from 1958 to 1964. Its members were known as the Young Najd (Najd al-Fattah in Arabic), Free Prince ...
does not mention his name as part of this group; so an alternate explanation of his self-exile in Cairo offers that it occurred as a result of an intra-family dispute due to his marriage to Hind Al Fassi (See also below and ''Personal life'' section).
In February 1982, Turki bin Abdulaziz and his family, while living in Miami, were accused of holding an Egyptian servant against her will. Officers from the Metro Dade Police Department (MDPD) searched his apartment with a warrant but failed to find the woman. However, the police encountered fierce resistance from Prince Turki's bodyguards. He eventually sued the MDPD for $210 million, wherein the defendant then launched a countersuit. The State Department granted him diplomatic immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country. in April 1982, and the lawsuit was dropped in June 1982.
In a letter published by Wagze news agency in July 2010, Prince Turki was reported to have warned Saudi Arabia's ruling family of a fate similar to that of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
and the ousted Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 Octobe ...
, calling on them to escape before people "cut off our heads in streets." He argued that the Saudi royal family was no longer able to "impose" itself on people, arguing that deviations in carrying out the religious concepts that make up the basis of the Saudi government "have gotten out of our hands," so that the opposition views our acts as "interfering in people's private life and restricting their liberties." He further urged "Do it today before tomorrow as long as the money we have is enough for us to live anywhere in the world; from Switzerland to Canada and Australia... we should not return as long as we are able to get out safely, we must take our families quickly and pull out.", continuing "Do not fool yourself by relying on the United States or Britain or Israel, because they will not survive the loss; the only door open is now the exit door of no return. Let us go before it closes." He finally warned against a military coup against the ruling family, saying "no one will attack us from outside but our armed forces will attack us." However, later Turki bin Abdulaziz told Saudi Press Agency
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA; ar, وكالة الأنباء السعودية) is the official news agency of Saudi Arabia.
History and profile
The agency was established in 1970 as the first national news agency in Saudi Arabia. The agency is a ...
that the alleged letter to him circulated by some media and internet sites was nonexistent and fabricated by enemy parties wishing to spread confusion and excitement.
Another controversy he experienced was about the death of his wife Hind al Fassi in August 2010. Her brother Allal al Fassi accused his brother-in-law, Prince Turki as well as his nephew and niece of killing his sister with a drug overdose. He submitted a report to the Attorney General and then, disappeared for 24 hours and reappeared after the medical report proved that there was nothing wrong in her system, leading to the withdrawal of all his accusations to his brother in law. On the other hand, Prince Turki's son, Abdul Rahman, sued his uncle Allal al Fassi claiming that he beat him and his father in the hospital where his mother died.
Views
During the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was an operation conducted by Iraq on 2 August 1990, whereby it invaded the neighboring State of Kuwait, consequently resulting in a seven-month-long Iraqi military occupation of the country. The invasion and Ira ...
in 1990, Prince Turki argued in a press conference that the United Nations' embargo was not enough to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. For him, military action was required to achieve it.
After returning to Saudi Arabia in 2011, Prince Turki fully supported the appointments of his younger brothers, Prince Nayef
Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, نايف بن عبد العزيز آل سعود, ''Nāyif ibn ‘Abd al ‘Azīz Āl Su‘ūd''; 1934 – 16 June 2012) was the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and deputy prime minister from October 2011 and the min ...
and Prince Salman, as crown princes. He argued in October 2011 that the decision to appoint Prince Nayef to the post was totally right and that Prince Nayef had wisdom, sound management and long history in serving the country.
Personal life and death
Turki bin Abdulaziz's first wife whom he divorced to marry Hind Al Fassi was Noura bint Abdullah, daughter of his uncle, Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman.
His second wife was Hind Al Fassi, a member of the Saudi Arabian Al Fassi family and daughter of Sheikh Shams ed din Al Fassi, a Sufi religious leader from the Shadhili
The Shadhili Order ( ar, الطريقة الشاذلية) is a tariqah or Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") ...
order, and great-grandson of Moroccan Sufi Imam al-Fassi, a Hasani Idrissi descendant of Prophet Mohammed, who had settled in Mecca in the late 18th-century. Turki bin Abdulaziz sacrificed his position as deputy defense minister and moved from the Kingdom into a self exile because he refused to divorce her in late 1970s. Therefore, he lost not only his position but also his candidacy for the Saudi throne. Later, he and his wife settled in Egypt in the late 1970s and never returned to Saudi Arabia together again. She died in 2010 in Cairo at the age of 57. After her death, Prince Turki returned to Saudi Arabia in 2011.
Prince Turki had four sons from his first marriage, Prince Khalid (born December 1957), Prince Sultan
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (c. 5 January 1928 – 22 October 2011) (Arabic: سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''Sulṭān ibn ʿAbdulʿazīz Āl Suʿūd''), called ''Sultan the Good'' (Arabic: سلطان الخير ''Sulṭa ...
(born May 1968), Prince Faisal (born January 1965) and Prince Fahd (born August 1959).[ In 1975, Prince Turki's elder sons took $1.1 million loan from the ]U.S. Export-Import Bank
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
(Eximbank) to finance their business in relation to rice mills in Saudi Arabia. Prince Khaled is the cofounder of Arab National Bank
The anb is a major bank based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. It is among the top ten largest banks in the Middle East and has received an 'A' rank from Standard and Poor's. It has 156 branches in Saudi Arabia. Its ...
.
One of Prince Turki's daughters is married to Khalid bin Sultan
Khaled bin Sultan Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن سلطان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) (born 24 September 1949) is the former deputy minister of defense and a member of the House of Saud.
Early life and education
Prince Khalid was bor ...
. His son, Sultan, was "kidnapped" in Geneva and placed under house arrest in Riyadh in 2004 after he spoke out in favour of reform in Saudi Arabia. Another son, Faisal bin Turki, was an adviser at the ministry of petroleum and natural resources in the mid-2000s.
Prince Turki died on 11 November 2016. He was buried at Al Oud cemetery
Al Oud Cemetery () is a public cemetery in al-Oud, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, known for being the resting place of many kings, crown princes and royals of the second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units ...
in Riyadh on 12 November 2016.
Ancestry
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saud, Turki Abdulaziz
Turki
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
Turki
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
Turki
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
1934 births
2016 deaths
Turki
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
Saudi Arabian expatriates in Egypt
Burials at Al Oud cemetery