Ankara: After a four-year hiatus, Turkey appointed its ambassador to Israel in the latest step between the two countries in the path of normalizing relations.
Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, a senior diplomat who served as the consul general of Turkey in occupied Jerusalem between 2010 and 2014, was appointed to the position in a presidential decree late Friday.
Who is Sakir Ozkan Torunlar?
Sakir Ozkan Torunlar was born in Mersin in 1960. After graduating from TED University in Ankara, he started his education at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University and graduated in 1982.
He joined the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983, and held various positions, where he held the position of Assistant Director General for the Middle East Region and Assistant Director General for Security Affairs.
Torunlar served as Turkey’s ambassador to Bangladesh between 2008 and 2010, and also served as Consul General in Israel between 2010 and 2014.
According to the Turkish newspaper, starting in 2014, Torunlar served as Director General of Bilateral Political Affairs (South Asia) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also served as Turkey’s Ambassador to India from January 17, 2017 to May 2021, and also became a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Council since 2021.
Turunlar, who is fluent in both English and French, was appointed Turkish ambassador to Tel Aviv in October 2022, becoming the first ambassador to Israel to be appointed since 2018.
Israel appoints Irit Lillian as first ambassador to Turkey
In September 2022, Israel appointed Irit Lilian as its ambassador to Turkey after the return of diplomatic relations between the two parties to their highest level.
The position has been vacant for 4 years after the deterioration of relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
Israel and Turkey relations
It is noteworthy that relations between Turkey and Israel deteriorated in 2008 after Israel launched a war on Gaza, and relations between the two sides were frozen in 2010 following the Israeli army attack on a Turkish ship that was part of an aid convoy heading to Gaza. As a result, 10 civilians were killed.
Bilateral relations were restored in 2016 after Israel agreed to pay $20 million to the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara.
However, Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Israel in May 2018 and expelled the Israeli envoy after dozens of Palestinians were killed by the Israeli occupation army.
Israel responded by returning the Turkish consul in Jerusalem to his country.
In March 2022, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Ankara in the first visit by an Israeli president to Turkey since 2008.
Two months after Herzog’s visit, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Israel, and Ankara and Tel Aviv said they wanted to expand their economic ties.
In August 2022, Israel announced that it had reached a final agreement to restore diplomatic relations with Turkey, to return ambassadors and consuls to Tel Aviv and Ankara, and to restore relations between them to their previous era.
In light of the rapprochement in relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in September 2022 met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prior to the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
