The Elysee would no doubt have gone well, but the windfall was too good for Turkey. The tension between Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after they treated each other by all the names of birds during the year 2020, with a peak during the summer, has subsided like a breath. The Turkish president sent his greetings to his French counterpart, who would have jumped at the opportunity to resume relations. Macron would have even sent a “Dear Tayyip” in turkish in “A very positive letter” where he says “Want to meet with our president”, revealed Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu.
The signal given by the French president is clear and received as it should by Turkey: Brussels needs Ankara. It doesn’t matter the invasion of northern Syria and the installation of Islamist militias, it doesn’t matter the repression against the Kurds in Syria, Turkey and Iraq, it doesn’t matter the violation of the arms embargo in Libya, it doesn’t matter drilling in the eastern Mediterranean and tensions with Greece and Cyprus or even dangerous incidents with the French fleet. And regardless of the aid in armaments and troops (still Islamist auxiliaries from Syria) brought to Azerbaijan against Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, in Nagorno-Karabakh.
This Thursday, Mevlüt Cavusoglu was in Brussels to meet the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and Friday the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey wants to discuss the renewal of the migration pact concluded with the European Union. A formidable diplomatic weapon since Ankara retains on its soil nearly 4 million refugees, of which a hypothetical surge haunts the nights of European leaders. And the salaries of the Turkish keeper are high. Likewise, NATO cannot lose this VIP member while Russia and China are ringing the bell. The Luxembourg Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, may well say that“Nobody intends to pass in the towel”, this is however what seems to be happening. P. B.
