Türkiye appoints ambassador to Israel

ANKARA

Türkiye has designated Şakir Özkan Torunlar as ambassador to Israel by a presidential decree signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The move came shortly after Israel had appointed current charges d’affaires to Ankara Irit Lillian as its ambassador to Türkiye.

Torunlar was Türkiye’s ambassador to Bangladesh in 2008-2010, and he served as the Consul General to Jerusalem between 2010 and 2014. He was Türkiye’s ambassador to India from 2017 to 2021. Torunlar served as Director General of Bilateral Political Affairs (South Asia) at the Foreign Ministry since 2014.

Torunlar became the ambassador appointed by Türkiye to Tel Aviv after four years after the two countries had lowered their diplomatic ties to the level of chargé d’affaires following the United States’ decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018.

The ties between the two nations have long been suffering in the past decade, first due to the “One Minute” crisis in Davos and later the killing of 10 Turkish men by Israeli commandos in an incident dubbed the Mavi Marmara crisis.

Türkiye and Israel have been in a process of reconciliation since late 2021 with the purpose of mending the sour ties between the two regional neighboring countries. President Erdoğan and Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as Prime Minister Yair Lapid established senior-level contacts in the past months to make the normalization possible. The two foreign ministers had announced the decision to level up the mutual diplomatic representation at a meeting in early summer.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal was appointed as Türkiye’s ambassador to the United Nations, while Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakcı has been appointed as EU ambassador.

Ankara appointed Ambassador Zeki Levent Gümrükçü as the country’s permanent representative to NATO.