Turkey appoints envoy to arch-foe Armenia to work on normalizing ties

Turkey names a former ambassador as special envoy to work on the normalization of ties with arch-foe Armenia.

Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic ties and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s. The two countries’ relations are particularly tense over World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which Yerevan says amount to genocide.

“With the authorization of the president, our former Washington ambassador Serdar Kilic will be officially appointed as special envoy,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says in televised comments.

Kilic also previously served as Ankara’s envoy to Japan and Lebanon.

Turkish and Armenian companies had applied for permission for charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan, he adds.

“God willing there will be a continuation of these [steps],” he tells Turkish reporters.