Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a big step this week to warm relations with the West, in a quick political pivot that comes as Turkey's president looks for solutions to a long and worsening economic crisis.

 Turkey's deepening economic crisis prompts Erdogan to look West

Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a big step this week to warm relations with the West, in a quick political pivot that comes as Turkey's president looks for solutions to a long and worsening economic crisis.

Mr Erdogan stunned Nato allies on Monday when he suddenly dropped his long-held objection to Sweden's request to join the military alliance. Hours before arriving in Lithuania, he had hit out at Stockholm for failing to do enough to stop terrorism.

His sudden change of tack highlights just how much the newly re-elected president is looking to mend diplomatic relations with the West and reassure foreign investors who have ditched Turkey in recent years because of its economic woes.

"It's classic Erdogan. It comes out of nowhere, the sudden shift in policy and tone," said Batu Coskun, an Ankara-based political analyst at the Sadiq Institute think tank. "Any other political leader would suffer from such a U-turn. But he's prospering from it."

That's because he secured commitments from Sweden, the US, Nato and even the European Union in return for his about-face.

Turkey now looks on course to receive a long-awaited delivery of F-16 fighter jets from the United States, and Mr Erdogan says Brussels is "positive" about reviving Ankara's long-stalled bid to join the EU and moving forward on visa liberalisation.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66188739