That must have been hard to say. I wonder what pressures have resulted in that turnaround.
It has to do with that little spat with Russia. Turkey has been thrashing around looking for alternative sources of oil and natural gas, as they are so dependent on Russia for those items and they are scared Russia will cut them off. Israel is in the process of building the means to export natural gas after the discovery of large deposits off the Israeli coast.
May have looked around and realized that Obama was the only friend he had left, and that things were likely to change in about a year. He really burned some bridges with the Russians, and Putin knows how to play hardball.