Ankara’s efforts to cultivate good relations with its neighbours and play a more active role in regional diplomacy paid off handsomely this week when Turkey became the first country to host a formal state visit from Barack Obama.

In a two-day charm offensive, the US president gave praise to parliamentarians for Turkey’s “strong and secular democracy”, took questions from wide-eyed students, admired Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and left a handwritten tribute at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the republic’s founder.