AUDIENCE WITH THE SULTAN

On 5 October 2015, European Council President Donald Tusk hosted Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a special dinner in Brussels. It was no occasion for pleasantries, even less for lectures about the rule of law in Turkey. Brussels was in full crisis mode. And to conquer the crisis it needed help, the strongman's help.

A torrent of refugees had been making its way to Europe since the start of the year. On the run from poverty and war in Syria and the Middle East, the human convoy passed through Erdogan's Turkey before embarking on packed dinghies and small boats to Greece and the European Union. It was a perilous journey. Thousands perished at sea. Their bodies washed ashore on some of Europe's most idyllic coastlines.

But the many hundreds of thousands who made it to Europe's shores found nothing to stop them. No walls or fences, no border guards, booths or gates, no police asking for papers. The Union possessed no system for guarding its external borders. And so the caravan just trudged onwards, via Serbia, Hungary and Austria to Germany, where most migrants planned to stay. If the Greeks could not guard the Union's external borders, the only practical solution seemed to resuscitate the continent's internal borders. But this, too, was an unappealing scenario.

By the time Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker broached their plan to their Turkish guest, Europe's options had dramatically shrunk. The pressure cooker needed to vent steam or it would blow. Europe needed Erdogan's support in keeping the refugee stream at bay. Might Turkey provide them with shelter, buy the EU some time at least? Turkey would of course be fairly compensated.

That evening it must have been hard for Erdogan, an intensely proud Turk, to fight back a smile of satisfaction. Was this Europe begging for help, his help? As long as he could remember, Turkish leaders had begged for Europe's recognition and acceptance, and the Europeans, infuriatingly, had always withheld it.