Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently seemingly scored foreign policy achievements one after the other that gave an impression that normalization with the Western world is in progress. His hosting of the quadripartite Syria summit in Istanbul brought in French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Then Erdogan paid a visit to Paris to participate in ceremonies marking the end of World War I.
All these high-level contacts with major Western leaders came after his official visit to Germany, where he was greeted with a red-carpet reception at his insistence.