Three months on from a failed military coup in Turkey, Ankara is enjoying a reinforced strategic role in the geopolitics of the conflict-torn Middle East. The World Energy Congress (WEC) in Istanbul on 9-13 October saw Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan feted by counterparts such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. And the signing at the event of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline agreement between Russia and Turkey cements a diplomatic rapprochement that buries the hatchet over the Turkish downing of a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November 2015.
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