A videoconference in the calm of the presidential palaces rather than a physical meeting at the Elysee or Ankara which could have been humiliating or explosive: Covid obliges, thus took place the discreet reunion between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Emmanuel Macron.
The two leaders had not spoken since September, but were giving each other news indirectly in a less diplomatic manner.
Erdogan aloud suspecting Macron of being "a problem" for France, doubting his "mental health" and accusing him of "Islamophobia";
Paris vigorously denouncing Turkish expansionist aims - from hydrocarbons in Cyprus and Greece to military activism in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh - and increasing naval maneuvers in the region with its southern European allies.
Latest grievance to date: the law against separatism and the government's desire to counter the influence of Turkey on Islam in France.
The Ankara regime had called for a boycott of French products and deprived of work permits for French teachers at Galatasaray University in Istanbul.
Erdogan again calls on Macron to have his mental health examined
At the end of January, however, Erdogan changed his tone.
"He who was playing the permanent balance of power suddenly became honeyed", confided in private a member of the government, astonished and suspicious at the same time.
No doubt the arrival at the White House of a Biden less conciliatory than Trump and determined to regain influence in the region has played a role.
Signs of appeasement have appeared, such as the resumption of talks between Turkey and Greece, and the planned return to Ankara of the French ambassador, who had been recalled to Paris at the height of tensions.
"I now hope that we will obtain results", then reacted a Macron "very happy" with this change of tone.
"Conflicting relations with Turkey would be unsustainable"
Why did you tie up the thread?
Several reasons for this, according to the specialist in international relations Bertrand Badie, professor at Sciences-po Paris
(author of "Inter-socialities, the world is no longer geopolitical", CNRS editions)
.
“First, Turkey is a real regional power, it largely holds the keys to the game in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean and as far as North Africa.
Then, Emmanuel Macron understood that conflicting relations with her would be unbearable, because she is part of the Atlantic Alliance, that it is better to play the card of negotiation than that of confrontation.
Especially since our European partners, apart from Cyprus and Greece who saw their gas reserves threatened, were not ready to follow in Macron's footsteps.
"
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In fact, vis-à-vis the hot Erdogan, the European position was often expressed in a duo "good cop, bad cop" (good cop, bad cop) embodied by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.
Concretely, the 27 agreed on sanctions against Ankara for its invasive gas drilling, but no more.
Behind the scenes, notes a diplomat, many EU capitals are showing themselves all the more conciliatory because they fear to see Recep Erdogan again brandishing the thorny issue of migrants.