Erdogan announces the date of the visit of the Israeli President to Ankara

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog will visit the Turkish capital of Ankara in mid-March.

US News quoted Erdogan as saying, during a press conference before his departure to Ukraine on Thursday: “With this visit, we will try to put our bilateral relations on a more positive footing in the future”, he said. “This approach we are following is also in Israel. Maybe we are sending our representatives to Israel just before Herzog’s visit to Turkey, as they did to pave the way for the start of the phase”.

The Times of Israel website quoted Erdogan as saying: “Both Turkey and Israel are keen to rebuild relations that have been strained for years”, the Hebrew newspaper reported. Herzog’s spokesman refused to comment on Erdogan’s announcement today, and the Hebrew newspaper did not deny that Erdogan and Herzog were in talks about the visit.

Erdogan had previously announced that the Israeli President would visit Ankara in early February, before announcing today the new date.