which means he remains in the good graces of the oligarchs, which means his money-laundering scheme can continue, whatever kompromat Putin has on him stays secret, and maybe he can build that yuge hotel in Moscow.

This move is not, I don't think, to please Erdogan, but to please Putin.

How much you want to bet Erdogan guaranteed he'd get his cohorts to pay full price for dozens of condos there?

A few years ago, I would've said sure.

But with impeachment and 2020 coming, I'm more inclined to think he's looking for dirt to ensure no impeachment & removal plus to win 2020.

We've seen he's not above dealing with the devil, so to speak.

OTOH, Lindsey Graham has already spoken out against it, and Trump counts on his support, and enforces that with knowledge of something Graham doesn't want made public, I think.

remember the reports that they kept a list of outrageous things they could do to change the headlines.
this one worked really well last time he used it.

Kashoggi? Who knows. So many scumbags can benefit from this....... The Kurds have the misfortune of being in the middle of the shit. As usual.

Knows he's running out of time

1 - helps PUtin and his ally Assad and was probably told to do this in no uncertain terms anyway
2 - turkey is the country pushing hard that MBS killed Khashoggi. drumpf and Kushner were involved are financially involved with MBS so want this to die down. MBS gave KUsher billions of $$ by bailing out their dying property. Bet we don't hear one more word from Turkey about this after drumpf gave them our allies for target practice.
3 - Turkey has a drumpf tower in Turkey - maybe Erdogan threatens it or bribed him with it. Just pulled that one out of my ass thinking about what leverage Erdogan has on drumpf.

his fascist base could care less about the humanitarian crisis that would ensue if the US abandons the Kurds.

announce to the world, and your enemies, what you were going to do?

Until he did it? When he needed a distraction?

If nothing else, it will emphasize the need to get him out of office even more along with the impeachment inquiry.

There's been a lot of talk of Kurdish genocide that might come as a result of this.