As Turkey names new envoy for Armenia, skepticism prevails
Moves for reconciliation between the two longtime opponents have been met with surprise by observers, who see ulterior motives on Turkey's part.
Turkey and Armenia have formally confirmed that they are going to appoint special envoys to lay the ground for normalizing relations after decades of mutual hostility.
The announcement, first made by Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, was endorsed by Armenia’s foreign ministry via Twitter, which asserted that the country was ready to initiate a process of normalization with Turkey “without preconditions.”
The Turkish foreign ministry has named Serdar Kilic, Ankara’s former ambassador to Washington, a career diplomat and an unabashed loyalist of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its envoy. Armenia has not yet named one.
The dovish noises coming out of Ankara and Yerevan have caught many by surprise. Why is Turkey still interested in fixing relations with its small, landlocked neighbor, and is it sincere? What’s in it for Armenia? And will Azerbaijan once again sabotage the process as it did in 2009?
