“I did not want to understand what exactly he meant. I rather chose to focus on letting him understand what we mean. I hope he understood us”. This is Erdoğan’s rather testy comment on his meeting with French President Macron. In essence, what Macron had said was that Turkey was not an active candidate for EU membership and, by the way Mr. Erdoğan, here is a list of people we would like released from Turkish gaols. A similar message was being given to Turkish Foreign Minister, Çavuşoğlu, in Germany: we are not talking about membership and, by the way, here is a list of German citizens we would like released from Turkish gaols. Good job Turkey has a new best friend in Russia.