During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducted intense diplomacy traffic and held meetings with 21 world leaders as well as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Erdoğan's diplomatic initiatives included efforts of normalization with regional powers, mediation in the Ukraine war and de-escalation of tensions between Israeli security forces and Palestinians.
President Erdoğan, who held talks with Guterres four times, including at a reception in Turkey, three times with Russian President Vladimir Putin, twice with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, and once with other leaders, also spoke over the phone with the leaders of 17 countries during the Ramadan Bayram (Eid al-Fitr) to exchange greetings.
In these meetings, leaders discussed many issues, especially bilateral relations, the Russia-Ukraine war and regional issues.
During the month, Erdoğan first spoke over the phone with Putin and Herzog on April 1. Bilateral relations and regional developments were discussed during the meetings he held with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The next day, Erdoğan held talks with President of Slovenia Borut Pahor, Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban.
During the meeting between Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 7, regional issues including the relations between the two countries and the Russia-Ukraine war were discussed.
Erdoğan talked with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on April 10 and with Pakistani Prime Minister-elect Shahbaz Sharif on April 12, and once again held talks with Nehammer on April 14.
President Erdoğan received the Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masrour Barzani, at the Dolmabahçe Working Office in Istanbul on April 15.
Turkey's new cross-border operation against the PKK terrorist group in northern Iraq was launched two days after the rare visit by Barzani, suggesting that he had been briefed on Ankara's plans.
Mediation efforts
Reacting to Israel's violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque, Erdoğan also conducted intense diplomatic traffic to stop Israel's attacks on the occupied city of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa on April 17-19.
For this aim, Erdoğan held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on April 17, King Abdullah II of Jordan on April 18, and Herzog on April 19, with whom he also spoke on the eve of Ramadan.
Ankara, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has condemned Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its policy toward Palestinians, while Israel has called on Turkey to drop support for the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which runs Gaza.
During the recent process, Turkey said it believes a rapprochement with Israel will also help find a solution to the issue but that it would not abandon commitments to Palestinians for better ties with Israel. Ankara also last month condemned the use of force against Palestinians by Israeli security forces and urged for a comprehensive investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Erdoğan told his Israeli counterpart Herzog that he was "very upset" by the Palestinians killed and injured in the West Bank and Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Turkey also continued its efforts of mediation in the Ukraine war. Speaking with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on April 22 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 24, Erdoğan received Guterres on April 25 at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara. Erdoğan also had a telephone conversation with Guterres two days after the reception, in which Guterres briefed him about his meeting with Putin in Moscow.
In his phone call with Putin on April 26, Erdoğan stated that the continuation of the positive momentum achieved in the Istanbul talks to open the road to peace between Russia and Ukraine is in the interest of everyone, and held his third meeting with Putin in Ramadan on April 28. During the Erdoğan-Putin meeting, the prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S. in Turkey, as well as the developments regarding the war in Ukraine were discussed.
Saudi visit
Amid Turkey's normalization efforts with regional powers, Erdoğan visited Saudi Arabia on April 28 at the invitation of King Salman.
Within the scope of the two-day visit, the relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia were reviewed, and opportunities to develop cooperation were discussed. During the meetings, views were also exchanged on bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues.
Meeting with King Salman as well as Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Erdoğan, accompanied by ministers, went from Jiddah to Mecca to perform Umrah.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are striving to increase all kinds of political, military and economic relations to start a new era, Erdoğan said following the visit.
"My visit (to Saudi Arabia) is the manifestation of our common will to start a new era of cooperation as two brotherly countries," he said.
Erdoğan and Saudi Arabia's crown prince met to develop relations during the first visit since the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi drove a wedge between the two regional powers.
The last time Erdoğan visited Saudi Arabia was in 2017 when he tried to mediate a dispute pitting the kingdom and other Gulf countries against Qatar.
The visit came as the two regional powers seek to mend nearly a decade of broken ties.
Following the 2011 Arab Spring, ideological differences and rival foreign policy objectives directed Ankara and Riyadh in different directions, making them fierce regional rivals.
Over the past year, Ankara has embarked on a diplomatic push to reset relations with regional powers such as Israel, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia after years of antagonism. Erdoğan had reiterated that Turkey hopes to maximize its cooperation with Israel, Egypt and Gulf nations "on a win-win basis," at a time when Ankara intensified diplomacy to mend its fraught ties with these regional powers following years of tensions.