Go cold Turkey - Riyadh Bureau
When Riyadh’s chamber of commerce held its election in February, one candidate was utterly ubiquitous: Ajlan al-Ajlan, billionaire founder of a company that sells Saudi men’s clothes, appeared to spare no expense for his campaign. On street billboards, newspaper pages, television channels and social media networks, his face was inescapable. People even joked they found him inside their microwaves and bread toasters.
Al-Ajlan’s heavy spending paid off as he came first in the election, winning a total of 6,283 out of 42,112 votes. His elevated profile earned him an interview on the kingdom’s top talk show during Ramadan where he was asked if his campaign has gone overboard considering the low stakes. “I’m serious and take everything seriously,” he said as he defended spending nearly $5m for the seat.
Despite his election win, many people outside Saudi Arabia would not have probably heard of al-Ajlan until earlier this month when he emerged as the leading voice calling for a full boycott of Turkey. “The boycott of everything Turkish, whether it is imports, investment or tourism, is the duty of every Saudi (trader and consumer) in response to continued hostility by the Turkish government against our leadership, country and citizens,” he said on Twitter.
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