Turkey’s efforts to normalise ties with Armenia and Israel are a tactical shift in diplomacy rather than a value-based commitment to cordial relations, said Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) in Washington D.C.
Turkey and Armenia have appointed special envoys for re-establishing diplomatic relations, broken since the early 1990’s, and re-opening their common border. They held their first meeting in Moscow on Jan. 14. Israeli President Isaac Herzog may meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara next month after Tel Aviv cautiously welcomed Turkey’s calls to repair ties ruptured by regional policy differences and the Palestinian problem.