Two months ago, relations between the US and Turkey were about as bad as they could get short of an outbreak of war. The two countries, decades-long allies in Nato and invariably on the same side on the big issues of the day, seemed headed for a permanent breach over a host of post-September 11 2001 irritants, especially, but not only, the war in Iraq, which Turkey believes poses a threat to its national interests.

Yet when Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, arrives at the White House on Tuesday for his first official meeting with US President George W. Bush, he is sure to get a warm welcome. In one of the more dramatic reversals of fortune in international relations in recent times, the Washington/Ankara axis appears to be back on track, even if the Turkish public is among the world’s most fiercely anti-American.