To describe relations between Austria and Turkey as tense would have been a diplomatic understatement in recent years.

The list of mutual criticism is long.

This went as far as accusations of espionage by the Turkish religious authorities on the one hand and alleged “anti-Turkey obsession” on the other hand.

But Russia's Ukraine war seems to have changed the omen here, at least for the moment.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer contacted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan several times to coordinate possible mediation efforts, and he remarkably often praised the ruler in Ankara.

On Monday, two members of the government traveled from Vienna to Turkey, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, to speak to their counterparts, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Süleyman Soylu.

"We have no problem with Austria," said Cavusoglu after meeting his "friend Alexander".

Schallenberg praised the frequency of the bilateral talks as "remarkable".

After several phone calls, Nehammer last met Erdogan in Madrid at the end of June on the occasion of the NATO summit.

Erdogan had previously received National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) and Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) in Ankara.

Schallenberg doesn't want to know about "charm offensive".

These are new tones, even if Schallenberg didn't want anything to do with an Austrian "charm offensive" and pointed out that there were still differences, "lights and shadows" in the long-term relationships.

The decisive factor is “a good basis for discussion at eye level”.

Schallenberg paid tribute to Turkey for intercepting the Russian-flagged freighter Zhibek Zholy and bringing it to the Black Sea port of Karasu.

Ukraine had asked Ankara to intervene because the freighter said it contained thousands of tons of grain that the Russian occupiers had stolen from Ukraine.

Schallenberg also expressed the suspicion that "by mixing it with Russian grain" an attempt had been made to "cover up traces".

Austrian-Turkish relations had hit rock bottom under the former chancellor and ÖVP chairman Sebastian Kurz, who significantly prevented the continuation of EU accession negotiations with Turkey in 2016.

But the estrangement between Vienna and Ankara goes back much further.

Social Democratic heads of government like Christian Kern also followed a skeptical line, especially since the democratic regression in Turkey since 2016. The Turkish side did not lack in provocations.

In 2014, during a performance in front of supporters in Vienna, Erdogan greeted his audience as "Kara Mustafa Pasha's grandson and heir" - an allusion to the Ottoman grand vizier who besieged Vienna in 1683.

The substance of security policy was at stake when NATO member Turkey used its veto to ensure that Austria remained excluded from all partnership programs of the Atlantic alliance in which the neutral country had participated since the 1990s.

“Whoever blocks, will be blocked,” was Cavusoglu’s succinct justification in 2017. But this topic in particular now points to the geopolitical background of the détente.

It took just over a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the partnership program with Austria for the years 2021 to 2024 to be accepted by all NATO countries, including Turkey.

There is no relevant political force in Vienna that would even consider applying for NATO membership along the lines of Finland and Sweden.

But Nehammer clearly classified Austria: Despite all military neutrality, one cannot be politically neutral in the face of breaches of international law and human rights violations.