President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has trotted the globe on an intense diplomatic blitz throughout 2023, making 21 visits to 15 countries and attending seven summits.

Increasing his international contacts after Türkiye's general elections in May, Erdoğan has brought up developments in the blockaded Gaza Strip at every meeting he held with world leaders since the beginning of Israeli attacks on Oct. 7.

He visited world capitals and received dozens of leaders at home, cultivating what his government has called a "refreshed" foreign policy for better relations and regional rapprochement.

Visits

In a show of Turkic solidarity, Erdoğan paid his first foreign visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Azerbaijan on June 12-13 after his reelection in May.

Throughout July, he attended the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, followed by a two-day tour across the Gulf with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 17-19 and the TRNC again on July 20.

He visited Hungary on Aug. 20 to attend the World Athletics Championships and Hungarian State Foundation Day celebrations.

Notably, Erdoğan flew over to the Russian resort city of Sochi on Sept. 4 for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon the latter’s invitation.

The meeting was on the heels of Ankara’s approval of Sweden’s long-awaited NATO application but the pair expanded the meeting to other issues, namely the crisis in civil war-torn Syria, economic cooperation and the Black Sea grain initiative, which Moscow halted earlier in July.

Later in September, Erdoğan traveled to India to attend the G-20 leaders' summit before visiting the U.S. on Sept. 16-20 for the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly where he shook hands with counterparts, most strikingly Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Erdoğan also paid a working visit to Azerbaijan's autonomous Nakhchivan enclave on Sept. 25 upon the invitation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Peace talks for Gaza

Following the Israeli attacks on Gaza on Oct. 7, Erdoğan launched an international push for peace and brought up Gaza at every meeting with the leaders.

He attended the 10th summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana on Nov. 2 and visited Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Nov. 8-9 to participate in the 16th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

On Nov. 11, Erdoğan visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to attend the Extraordinary Joint Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League.

He met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Nov. 17. before visiting Algeria on Nov. 21 to meet his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Erdoğan attended the virtual G-20 leaders' summit on Nov 22.

He engaged in peace diplomacy for Gaza through visits and telephone calls with leaders, especially those in the region.

He discussed solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Scholz, Putin, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

When Erdoğan traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 30 to attend the 2023 U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP28, in Dubai, the main agenda item of his meetings was the developments in Gaza.

He discussed with world leaders Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territories, steps taken by Türkiye for humanitarian aid and peace, and what needs to be done for lasting peace.

In the last month of the year, Erdoğan paid an official visit to Qatar on Dec. 4-5 for the 9th Qatar-Türkiye High Strategic Committee in response to an invitation by Sheikh Tamim.

On his last visit of the year, Erdoğan traveled to Hungary on Dec. 18 for the sixth meeting of the Türkiye-Hungary High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

First Greece visit in 6 years

As 2023 saw Turkish-Greek relations thaw and the sides try to restore dialogue per budding mutual goodwill, Erdoğan arrived in Greece on his first official visit in six years on Dec. 7.

He and Mitsotakis co-chaired the fifth meeting of the Türkiye-Greece High-Level Cooperation Council to review all aspects of bilateral relations and to address steps to improve cooperation.

"We hope to turn Aegean into a sea of peace," Erdoğan said next to Mitsotakis before the pair signed a declaration of friendship.

Hosting

Erdoğan also received many leaders on official and working visits to Türkiye in 2023.

In January, he received Nechirvan Barzani, the leader of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

In February, he hosted Aliyev, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim, Barzani again, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Erdoğan met members of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Presidential Council for talks in Istanbul in February.

He and Croat member Zeljko Komsic, Serb member Zeljka Cvijanovic, and Bosniak member Denis Becirovic held a closed-door meeting.

Erdoğan also met Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio, Sultan of Brunei Darussalam's Crown Prince Hassanal Bolkiah, President of Guinea Bissau Cissoko Embalo Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Aliyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Hungarian President Katalin Novak also visited Türkiye in March.

In June, Erdoğan received again Sheikh Mohammed and Masrour Barzani.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Mahmoud Abbas visited Erdoğan in July.

In September, Erdoğan received the head of Sudan's ruling Sovereign Council Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Erdoğan met Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the president of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in October.

Erdoğan further met Austrian Prime Minister Karl Nehammer, the president of the Comoros Azali Assouman, Anwar Ibrahim, his Turkmen counterpart Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mahmud.

In November, he met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu of Maldives and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Erdoğan received Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu for talks in December.