The flurry of aid diplomacy in the wake of the pair of massive earthquakes in Turkey has shattered Ankara’s portrayals of friends and foes, as countries cast as “enemies” rushed to help in the search for survivors and offer humanitarian relief.

Turkey’s Islamists espoused the notion that only Muslims could be true brothers to each other, while nationalists promoted the mantra that “Turks have no friends other than Turks.” Drawing on such sentiments at their grassroots, the ruling Justice and Development Party and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party, kept lashing out at “external enemies,” often as a diversion from domestic woes.

Certainly, the outpouring of international support is unlikely to result in new pages in all of Turkey’s troubled foreign ties, but it has shown that enmities cannot last forever. The two quakes, which hit nine hours apart on Feb. 6, caused colossal damage across 10 provinces in Turkey’s southeast, with the death toll surpassing 35,000 on Wednesday.

One of the most striking gestures of support came from Armenia, which lacks formal diplomatic ties with Turkey and lost a war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave to Turkey-backed Azerbaijan in 2020. For the first time in more than three decades, Turkey opened the border on Saturday to allow the entry of Armenian trucks carrying humanitarian aid and rescuers. The thaw continued on Wednesday as Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan visited the quake-hit city of Adiyaman.