President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements in a televised interview on Wednesday evening contained very important and clear messages regarding Turkey's foreign policy. These statements embodied the signals being transmitted through the country's recent normalization steps to deal with areas experiencing long-term problems.

Highlighting that the new era will resume with his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in February, Erdoğan also announced that Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected visit to Turkey in the first week of February.

Perhaps the most prominent element of these normalization steps is the Israeli president's visit to Turkey for the first time in 13-years. In fact, Tel Aviv had begun showing signs of normalization since last summer.

It is important to look at where and how the relations broke off. The decoupling of relations transpired not only between the governments but also between the peoples because there was no tangible change in Israel's aggressive policies toward both Turkey and Palestine during this period.

Most notably, Turkey-Israel relations entered their tensest period after the Tel Aviv administration intervened in international waters on the Mavi Marmara ship, which was trying to go to Gaza to protest the blockade imposed on Palestine in 2010 and deliver humanitarian aid. Some 10 Turkish citizens were killed during the incident.

Eventually, Israel apologized to Turkey in 2013, and an agreement was reached between the two countries in 2016, which included paying compensation to the families who lost their relatives during the Mavi Marmara raid.

The status of Jerusalem is another important dispute between the two countries. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the country after the Israeli side applied disproportionate force against Palestinians protesting the opening of a United States Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, in which 60 people were killed.

Benjamin Netanyahu, then prime minister of Israel and a well-known hawkish political figure that condones Israel's human rights and legal violations against the Palestinian territories and Palestinians, did not step back from his stance.

With the arrival of June-July 2021, Naftali Bennett and Isaac Herzog came to power in Israel’s top political seats, and messages of softening in Turkey-Israel relations were shared.

Ankara has responded cautiously to these positive messages. As the first concrete step, Ankara invited Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz to the Antalya Diplomacy Forum hosted by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu on June 2021. Steinitz was the first senior Israeli official to come to Turkey since 2010.

During this whole process, mutual positive messages gained momentum, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the field of energy cooperation.

Ankara also took important diplomatic steps toward normalization when President Erdoğan received members of the Turkish Jewish community and the Rabbinical Alliance of Islamic Countries at the Presidential Complex in December. The president also expressed his condolences to Herzog on his mother's death.

Now, while both sides are defending the idea that Turkey-Israel relations are vital for the stability and security of the region, Ankara's normalization steps with Gulf countries are coming across as a picture that completes this new era.

During his TV interview, Erdoğan also emphasized the normalization process will pick up pace especially after his visit to the UAE in February.

"We have recently achieved a good acceleration in our relations with the Gulf countries. I believe that new dynamics emerging in the region play a role in this. We have entered a new era that prioritizes dialogue and reconciliation. In this new environment, I see that our country's principled and well-intentioned attitude toward the Gulf is now beginning to be better understood. A new era will be entered with a visit to the UAE on Feb. 14," he said.

It is very clear that the effects of the improved relations with the Gulf and Israel will begin to be felt primarily in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. With the addition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to the process, the repercussions of this situation in Turkey-U.S. relations will also need to be monitored in the short term.

In light of these developments, the first messages of the new U.S. ambassador to Ankara, Jeff Flake, who presented his letter of credentials to President Erdoğan on Wednesday, should also be noted. By saying "It serves our national interests that the United States and Turkey work together to counter very serious threats to global peace and security," Flake may seem well-intentioned, but it is not enough for Ankara. Flake will have to work overtime to normalize Turkish-American relations, which have soured over a number of problems.

In particular, it should be expected that the pro-normalization policy pursued by Turkey in its bilateral relations would have a positive impact not only on bilateral relations but also on its regional and global conflicts. Turkey is strongly determined to resolve a number of problems simultaneously that have remained frozen for a long time.