President Isaac Herzog is set to travel to Turkey March 9 for a first official visit in 15 years. The visit comes after two years of persistent attempts by Ankara for rapprochement. At first, Jerusalem was sceptic over the intentions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Now, it seems, it has decided to accept them as is, and move on full speed with efforts to rehabilitate ties. That being said, neither country has announced so far its intention to reinstall its ambassador back to Ankara/Jerusalem. If the visit goes well, the two presidents might announce this jointly.
While Herzog will be in Ankara, Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) will hold a special conference, livestreamed, on the future of Israel-Turkey relations. Ambassador Mark Regev and Gallia Lindenstrauss, senior research fellow at INSS, will moderate the event — titled "Winds of Change: Where are Turkey-Israel relations headed?" — hosting prominent Israel and Turkish experts.
