Turkish Foreign Policy, the Arab Spring and the Syrian Crisis: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back In Işıksal, H., and Göksel, O. (eds.) (2018). Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East: Political Encounters after the Arab Spring. New York: Springer. (original) (raw)

Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East After Arab Spring

International Relations and Diplomacy

Turkish policymakers' main focus was on how to play an effective regional role in the events and issues of the Middle East, such as mediation in resolving conflicts. Consequently, the paper will attempt to address the following questions: What is the impact of Turkish foreign policy towards the Arab Spring under Justice and Development Party (AKP: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) rule? What is the future of Turkey in the Middle East in light of the revolutionary variables in the region? The main aim of this paper is to explore Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East under the AKP rule particularly after the Arab Spring. The paper attempts to anticipate the future of Turkish foreign policy and Turkey's role in the Middle East.

Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East After the Arab Spring

The social and political earthquake that has shaken the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the end of the 2010 has completely changed the political landscape of the region. In terms of both domestic politics and geopolitics. Among the countries of the Middle East, Turkey it has been one of the most affected by the so-called Arab Spring, due to the important influence that it had acquired after the emergence of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) as the ruling party of Turkey. The paper focuses on Turkish foreign policy and on how the Arab Spring has changed it. In the introduction an account will be given to describe what happened in the region from the 2010 until today. Then, in the first part of the analysis it will be addressed the historical position of Turkey in the region and the limits of its Middle Eastern politics due to various structural factors (USSR, PKK and domestic political instability), at least until the 2000s. After that, it will be described Turkish foreign policy right before the uprisings. The second part will be the bulk of the analysis, in which it will be described the major changes in the stance of Turkey in the MENA, after the Arab Spring. At the end we will see that through the lens of a “short run” analysis the position of Turkey in the Middle East seems to be now compromised. While with a “long term” perspective, given the instability of the new polities emerged after the uprisings, the foreign policy adopted by AKP to face the Arab Spring could turn out to be good for Turkish position in the MENA.

Turkish Foreign Policy in a Changing Arab World: Rise and Fall of a Regional Actor?

This article analyses Turkey’s responses to the Arab uprisings in the context of its larger foreign policy transformation and regional aspirations. The AKP government seized the uprisings as an opportunity to increase its influence in the region by assigning itself a central role in the transition processes in various countries. In the process, however, Turkey faced a number of setbacks and reversals. Comparing the cases of Libya, Syria, and Egypt, the paper argues that Turkey’s efforts to advance regime change in these sites were marked by inconsistency and incoherence. Furthermore, the paper argues that this trajectory of reactions can be explained only by taking both ideational and domestic factors into account. Despite the shortcomings of Turkey’s actions, however, the article concludes that Turkey has consolidated itself as a regional actor, albeit a controversial one.

Turkey and the Arab Spring. Implications for Turkish Foreign Policy from a Transatlantic Perspective

GMF Mediterranean Papers, No. 13 (October 2011), 2011

The Arab Spring reveals a number of contradictions and constraints as well as opportunities for Turkish foreign policy, all of which are of key relevance both to Turkey and to its transatlantic partners. The inconsistencies in and weaknesses of Turkish foreign policy, particularly when mapped against the stances of the European Union (EU) and the United States, may be viewed as by-products of a more proactive Turkish role in its southern neighborhood. The Arab Spring has revealed the inherent tension between the normative and realpolitik dimensions of Turkish foreign policy. The Arab Spring has also revealed that Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” has rested largely on improved ties with specific leaders. Finally, the Arab Spring has revealed that Turkey’s activism in the Middle East, and in particular its prolific mediation activities, have been as much contextual as actor driven. In the medium and long-term, a changing Middle East may present Turkey with important opportunities, to be seized alongside its transatlantic partners. Rather than a black-and-white model of a pro-Western Muslim secular democracy, Turkey may offer a number of different models and ideas to inspire change in its southern neighborhood. Some of these ideas may complement and enrich, others may contrast with, the Western concept of the Turkish model. Different countries (and different actors within them) may find different aspects of Turkey of interest, as noted by Hassan Nafaa. In particular, Ömer Taşpınar reflects on how two seemingly contrasting aspects of the Turkish model might strike chords across democratizing or reforming countries in the southern Mediterranean: Turkish political Islam and the Turkish military. On one hand, southern Mediterranean countries may turn to the trajectory of Turkish political Islam and, specifically, the evolution of the Justice and Development Party. On the other hand, these countries may take an interest in the development of the Turkish military and civil-military relations in Turkey. Yet as pointed out by Barkey, Taşpınar, and Nafaa, Turkey inevitably has its peculiarities that defy any clear-cut emulation. Equally relevant, as Henri Barkey notes, rather than the Turkish model as such, what may be of interest is studying Turkey’s evolution, learning from its steps forward, and, perhaps, even more critically, from its mistakes.

Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East: Political Encounters after the Arab Spring

Springer, 2018

This edited volume examines contemporary political relations between Turkey and the Middle East. In the light of the Arab Uprisings of 2011, the Syria Crisis, the escalation of regional terrorism and the military coup attempt in Turkey, it illustrates the dramatic fluctuations in Turkish foreign policy towards key Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The contributors analyze Turkey’s deepening involvement in Middle Eastern regional affairs, also addressing issues such as terrorism, social and political movements and minority rights struggles. While these problems have traditionally been regarded as domestic matters, this book highlights their increasingly regional dimension and the implications for the foreign affairs of Turkey and countries in the Middle East.

Turkey's approach to the Arab spring revisited: political field and foreign policy in the AKP era

Turkish Studies , 2024

Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this article sheds light on the relationship between the AKP's foreign policy toward the Middle East and its twenty-year rule in Turkey. It argues that Turkish foreign policy can be understood by looking at the evolving strategies adopted by AKP in the political field. In the early 2010s, the AKP emphasized conservative social values, neo-liberal reformism, and support for the Arab Spring to accumulate political capital. However, as the expected regional change did not materialize, and as domestic legitimacy eroded, the party has resorted to an increasingly nationalist discourse to preserve its dominant position.

Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Arab Revolutions

Epiphany, 2013

Turkey's foreign policy has been drawing considerable attention particularly because of the momentous transformations in the Middle East. The visits of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuoglu to Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in September 2011 and their subsequent visits to the region underscored the rise of Turkey's involvement in the region. The Arab Spring came at a time when Turkey's relations with the United States, Israel and the European Union were going through significant turbulence. 2010 proved to be a particularly difficult year for Turkey's place in the transatlantic community. The Gaza flotilla crisis in June 2010ending with Israeli forces killing eight Turkish citizens-and Turkey's-no‖ vote to a new round of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations (UN) Security Council that same month triggered a heated debate on Turkey's relations with the West, which led popular American columnists such as Tom Friedman to go as far as arguing that Ankara was now joining the-Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran resistance front against Israel.‖ While this was a clear exaggeration, it indicated the scope of debate on the eve of the Arab Spring. Since the Arab Spring, the Western discourse about Turkey has dramatically changed. Instead of asking-who lost Turkey‖ or complaining about the Islamization of Turkish foreign policy, analysts began discussing whether the new regimes in the Arab world would follow the-Turkish model.‖ This article aims to analyze the Turkish approach to the Middle East and the Arab revolutions, the main determinants of Turkish foreign policy and diplomacy in the Middle East and the debate on-Turkish Model. What has changed, or has not, during and after the Arab Spring?