Can Turkey's outreach to Armenia save US-Turkish ties?
Although Turkey-Armenia normalization is not guaranteed, mutual moves by Ankara and Yerevan are hopeful steps in the right direction.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced in Turkish parliament at the beginning of the week that Turkey would normalize ties with Armenia and charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan would resume.
"We will mutually appoint envoys as part of normalization steps with Armenia," Cavusoglu said, adding that Ankara would coordinate its steps with Azerbaijan.
Citing a senior Turkish official, Bloomberg reported that Turkey's surprise overture is in line with President Joe Biden's request, who allegedly urged Erdogan to open the country's border with landlocked Armenia during the two leaders’ October meeting in Rome.
According to the Bloomberg report, Turkey hopes that normalizing ties with Armenia will help Ankara to improve its strained relations with Washington over the former’s purchase of Russian air missile defense systems. The report has gone as far as to claim, "Erdogan could reap major benefits from any foreign policy move that helps to stabilize the economy as skyrocketing inflation threatens his popularity ahead of the 2023 vote."
