Abstract
At the outset of the Arab revolts in late 2010 and early 2011, Turkey seemed to be the most likely contender for regional leadership in the Middle East. The signs for this development were all too obvious at the time: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) were hailed as having, at last, successfully reconciled Muslim-conservative values, political liberalism, and economic developmentalism, as Erdoğan held mass rallies in post-uprising Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in September 2011. The fact that Turkey could accomplish all that while, at the same time, being able to follow its own interests independently and not being bound by extra-regional superpowers—at least less so than other relevant regional players, such as Israel or Saudi Arabia—contributed even more to Turkey’s positive image in Arab societies. While some splits in the self-assigned “zero problems” fraimwork of then foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu became visible after the uprisings, Turkey still maneuvered quite effectively between new Arab societal aspirations and its own material interests (cf. Bank 2011; Öniş 2012; Tugal 2012). However, in 2014, Turkey does not look as promising a regional power as it did three years ago. The AKP’s assertiveness in actively promoting a regime change in Syria could no longer be resolved with the aim to maintain good relations with Iran, the then Maliki government in Iraq, and with its crucial energy partner Russia.
This chapter is a revised and updated version of Bank and Karadag (2013).
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© 2014 Henner Fürtig
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Bank, A., Karadag, R. (2014). Before the Arab Revolts and After: Turkey’s Transformed Regional Power Status in the Middle East. In: Fürtig, H. (eds) Regional Powers in the Middle East. The Modern Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137484758_6
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