Turkey’s eagerness to revive dialogue with Western partners has markedly increased since November, a month marked by two milestone events for Ankara — Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential elections and Berat Albayrak’s departure from Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry, which resonated as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s acknowledgement that the Turkish economy was on the brink of collapse.

In the most recent manifestation of this effort, a high-profile Turkish delegation resumed long-stalled talks with Greek counterparts Jan. 25 on complex territorial disputes between the two neighbors and fellow NATO members. The talks took place shortly after Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with top European Union officials in Brussels, where he talked enthusiastically about the need to strengthen ties between Turkey and the EU.

The changing mood in Ankara became more pronounced after Jan. 12, when Erdogan hosted EU ambassadors, voicing optimism about Turkey’s ties with the EU and stressing Ankara’s readiness “to put relations back on track.” The pro-government media, which until recently slammed calls for rapprochement with the EU as unpatriotic and even treacherous, is now echoing Ankara’s U-turn, with almost all commentators advocating fence-mending with the EU as soon as possible. Calls for a “new chapter” with both the EU and the United States abound, complete with a friendly rhetoric on NATO. Documents on Turkey’s EU membership bid are being removed from dusty archives and events dedicated to Turkey-EU ties are taking place one after another.

Many observers believe Ankara’s turnabout mirrors Erdogan’s promise for a package of judicial and economic reforms at home, which he is expected to unveil in February. Erdogan’s reform rhetoric has been coupled with back-stepping from gas exploration in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean until June in a further effort to thaw ties with the EU.