John Bass, candidate for the next US envoy to Turkey, thinks that the instability along Turkey's southern border gives renewed urgency for Ankara to build stronger relations with neighbors, particularly, Israel and Armenia.
At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, Bass said that the U.S. continues encouraging Turkey and Armenia to move towards normalization as a means of creating peaceful, productive and prosperous relationship the people of both countries deserve. He also recalled that on the Remembrance Day in 2014,
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan expressed his condolences to the descendants of those Armenians killed during World War I. According to the diplomat, that gesture and other positive efforts by the Turkish government demonstrate that the space for dialogue is opening. The U.S. encourages both sides to pursue a full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts related to the tragic events of 1915, he said.