BERLIN — Call it teapot diplomacy.

Like any good host, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel takes pains to makes his guests comfortable. So before his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited his hometown of Goslar last weekend, Gabriel made a last-minute purchase at a local shop — a Çaydanlık, a traditional Turkish teapot.

The gesture wasn’t lost on Çavuşoğlu as he sat sipping Turkish tea with Dostum Sigmar (my friend Sigmar) in Gabriel’s sunroom. Gabriel, the former Social Democratic Party leader who became Berlin’s foreign minister about a year ago, was equally enthusiastic about lieber Mevlüt (dear Mevlüt) during a made-for-TV visit that included a stroll through Goslar’s cobble-stoned old town and at least one manbrace.

The meeting might have drawn little notice were German-Turkish relations not at their lowest point in decades. Berlin has led criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s turn toward authoritarianism, which has included the arrest of a number of German citizens on what Berlin considers bogus grounds.

The Turkish leader has responded with a string of ad hominem attacks, accusing German companies of supporting “terror” in his country and drawing comparisons between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Nazis. Erdoğan has also lashed out at several other European countries and the U.S., suggesting they were trying to undermine Turkey in various ways.

“There is no other economic option for Erdoğan, so he really needs Europe" — Jan Techau, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States

The breakdown of the relationship with Germany has not been without cost. Tensions with Turkey’s most important trading partner and long a key ally in Europe has left Ankara particularly isolated. And with millions of Turks living in Germany, the collapse in the bilateral relationship worries many in Berlin, as well.

Against that backdrop, the Goslar get-together was anything but routine. That it happened at all signals both sides are keen to defuse the tensions.

“We both have made it our goal to do everything we can to overcome the difficulties of the past and remember what binds us,” is how Gabriel put it.

In late December, Erdoğan told reporters traveling with him in Africa that his aim was “to lessen the number of foes and increase the number of friends.”

“We have no problems with Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium,” he said, citing three countries with which Turkey has clashed diplomatically. “To the contrary, those who are in the governments of these countries are my old friends,” Erdoğan said.

The new tune suggests the Turkish leader is starting to take the economic impact of Turkey’s growing isolation seriously. Since the 2016 failed coup against Erdoğan, Turkey’s currency has taken a nosedive.

While the cheap lira has boosted exports and fueled growth, it has also led to a spike in inflation, which is near a 15-year high. Government interference in the economy has added to foreign investors’ concerns about Turkey’s course, and they are turning away from the country.

“There is no other economic option for Erdoğan, so he really needs Europe,” said Jan Techau, the Berlin-based director of the Europe program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Turkey’s business community has also been putting pressure on the government. On Monday, Erol Bilecik, the head of the Turkish Industry and Business Association TUSIAD, said recent economic data shows that Turkey could not “ignore” Europe.

Turkey’s current political environment presents a “window of opportunity” for restoring ties with Europe, said Sinan Ülgen, an analyst at Carnegie Europe and a former Turkish diplomat. Last year, the Turkish president needed ultranationalists to push through a referendum on whether to expand the powers of his office, prompting him to use increasingly anti-Western rhetoric.

Erdoğan will need to win over these same voters once more in 2019, when he faces reelection. But 2018 is a year without elections in Turkey, and — so far — no elections in Germany. That, Ülgen believes, is why Ankara has chosen to reach out now.

“This year, the political calendar — at least as things stand — is devoid of any significant electoral events,” he said. “That gives the government a margin to maneuver.”

Ülgen, who was part of the delegation that negotiated the original EU-Turkey customs union in the 1990s, says European countries should seize the moment and try to engage with Ankara.

“If the EU decides to start negotiations for a customs union upgrade — that might provide a vehicle to stabilize the relationship,” he said.

Whether Europe is willing to do that will become clearer in the coming weeks with the expected release of reports by the Commission and Parliament on Ankara’s progress toward fulfilling the requirements for succession. While both reviews are likely to take a critical view of Ankara’s crackdown on democratic institutions, the reaction to the report in Berlin and other capitals will signal whether Europe is open to compromising with Turkey.

At a meeting with Erdoğan in Paris last week, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested the EU and Turkey “rethink” their relationship, reviving the idea of some form of alternative partnership.

Such an arrangement would require substantial concessions from the Turkish side, however, something that for the time being appears unlikely. “Fundamentally, when you look at the relationship with Europe as well as bilateral ties, what needs to happen is an improvement in democratic standards,” Ülgen said. “That is not going to happen in the immediate future.”

Indeed, even incremental progress has proved slow. Ankara has recently released some of the Germans it was holding for alleged political crimes, but it continues to detain several more, including Deniz Yücel, a journalist with the German daily Die Welt.

Erdoğan has accused Yücel, who has been in custody for more than a year, of espionage in connection with an interview he conducted with a leader of the Kurdish minority.

Gabriel repeated Berlin’s demand for Yücel’s release during his meeting with Çavuşoğlu. While the Turkish minister didn’t address Yücel or the other prisoners specifically, he expressed optimism that Germany and Turkey would soon resolve their differences.

“Yes, there are problems, and there have been differences, even tension and escalation, but we can overcome this,” he said.