Mr Yildirim’s government had every reason to bury the hatchet with Moscow. Sanctions imposed by the Kremlin last autumn have hurt. Turkish exports to Russia dropped by 60% in the first half of the year; the number of Russian travellers to Turkey was down more than 90% in May compared with last year’s figures, largely as a result of a ban on tourism. Russian operators have recently restarted flights to Turkey after an eight-month hiatus. Tourists who spilled out of a Rossiya Airlines flight last weekend in Antalya, a Turkish resort town, were feted with champagne and flowers. 

bury the hatchet：まさかり・仲直りする
hiatus：中断
feted：もてなしを受ける

Meanwhile, Russia’s intervention in Syria has blocked Turkish ambitions to play regional kingmaker. With its Syrian proxies bloodied by regime forces, Russian jets and the jihadist fighters of Islamic State (IS), Turkey risks being cut out of any prospective agreement over the country’s future. By cozying up to the Russians, Western diplomats say, it hopes to win back a seat at the table. 

kingmaker：実力者
cozying up to：の機嫌をとる
win back a seat：席を取り戻す

Yet reconciliation with the Kremlin can only go so far. Turkey and Russia remain at odds in the Caucasus and in the Black Sea, which the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently described as on the verge of becoming “a Russian lake”. Turkey also resents what it sees as Russia’s habit of allowing home-grown jihadists to travel to Syria. Such concerns have grown since an attack by IS militants killed 45 people at Istanbul’s main international airport on June 28th. Two of the suicide bombers involved, as well as several suspected accomplices, turned out to be Russian nationals. “They’re not stopping these people,” complains a Turkish official, referring to militants from the northern Caucasus who regularly surface Turkey’s border with Syria. “It’s placing an enormous burden on our shoulders.” 

reconciliation：和解
can only go so far：その程度でしかない
resents：に憤慨する
accomplice：共犯者

It is in Syria that the new charm offensive faces its biggest test. Turkish officials continue to hold the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, but realise that efforts to topple him are unlikely to succeed anytime soon. Turkey already seems less concerned with Mr Assad than with preventing Kurdish insurgents from gaining a permanent foothold in the country’s north. The rapprochement with Russia means it is even more likely to ditch its support for regime change. “After this Assad will no longer be a red line,” says Osman Bahadir Dincer of the International Strategic Research Organisation, a think-tank in Ankara. 

charm offensive：人気取り作戦
ditch：捨てる

The departure of Turkey’s former prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has served as an excuse to push ahead with changes that were long overdue. Mr Davutoglu was credited with shaping his country’s foreign policy over the past decade, and foreign observers viewed him as a moderate who restrained Mr Erdogan’s pugnacious instincts. Ironically, since he was booted from office in May after a series of spats with Mr Erdogan, Turkey’s adventurist streak has given way to pragmatism, at least in the Middle East. 

long overdue：長年の懸案だった
credit：評価される
pugnacious：好戦的な
booted：クビにする
spats：意見の不一致・口論
streak：傾向
given way to：に取って代わる

木曜日。ロシアとの関係改善によって、観光と貿易が戻ってきたが、アンカラの自爆テロにはロシア人もいた。トルコがロシアの裏庭になることを懸念していて、アサドとの敵対関係は放棄せざるを得ないようだ。Davutogluがエルドアンの好戦的な態度を収めてきたが、Yildirimが首相になって、皮肉なことだが、少なくとも中東においては実践的になってきた。

昨日に昼は森さんと会食した。昨晩アクセンチュアの戦略グループの仲間の同窓会があると聞いたので、私の著書を６０部スタッフに持って行ってもらった。昨晩は海野塾があった。懇親会も１１時まであった。楽しい1日だった。今日の昼は木戸脇さんとの会食があり、２時から引越しがある。荷物をトランクルームに預ける。整理すると大変な荷物だ。いくら捨ててもなんでこんなに荷物がるのか不思議だ。親父の家具屋を処分した時も一緒だった。膨大な先祖の宝物を全部捨てた。写真だけ残した。そういうものだ。ではまた明日。