Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is probably one of the world's busiest men. In other words, it's not easy for a journalist to have a chance for a long interview with him. That is why I was pleased last weekend to get a call from his media adviser inviting me to join Davutoğlu's official trip to the Netherlands. The minister would stay in the Dutch capital only for 12 hours for an international summit, I was told, before flying to Kyrgyzstan for another meeting. But he would have free time on the plane.

I accepted, knowing that "plane interviews" have become a phenomenon in Turkish journalism. The president, the prime minister or the foreign minister often take journalists with them, who are not necessarily friendly but at least objective in their eyes, and give them exclusive remarks.

Hence, on Monday night [April 8], I made it to the small, official plane that Davutoğlu uses in most of his trips. Among the dozen people who filled the seats, there were senior advisors, high-ranking diplomats and two journalists.

When we began chatting with Davutoğlu, he first noted how overwhelming his schedule was — something that he did not complain about, but felt proud of. He had just twice received US Secretary of State John Kerry, along with the foreign ministers of Mali, South Sudan and the European Union. He had negotiated a deal between Somali and Somaliland, and was heading to Jeddah soon for the Myanmar Contact Group formed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. No previous Turkish foreign minister had such a scope of work, he noted, reminding that Turkey's foreign policy used to be much more reserved throughout the past century.