Abstract
The wave of popular uprisings that started in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread to numerous countries in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 is now commonly known as the Arab Spring. These uprisings took politicians, policymakers, intelligence agents, and scholars alike by surprise (see, for example, Bayat, 2013), thus requiring international actors to scramble for a response and to reorient their foreign policies. Turkey was not an exception. This chapter, which explores Turkey’s foreign policy during the Arab Spring, is divided into two parts. The first presents Turkey’s response to the uprisings in four countries—Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The second draws on these cases to discuss two debates that have emerged: (1) the seeming failure of Turkey’s ‘zero problems with neighbours’ policy and (2) charges of sectarianism against Turkey.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter will use the term ‘Arab Spring’ to refer to the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, which began in December 2010 in Tunisia. The use of this term, however, is controversial for various reasons. For example, the term ignores the participation of non-Arabs.
- 2.
The four other principles are balance between freedom and democracy, development of relations with neighboring regions and beyond, multidimensional foreign policy, and rhythmic diplomacy (Davutoğlu, 2008, pp. 79–82).
- 3.
The term is coined from the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres that partitioned the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World War I. The Turkish War of Independence precluded the implementation of the treaty.
- 4.
The 2009 survey was conducted through in-person interviews with 1,110 people in four cities (Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, and Bursa).
- 5.
The seven countries are Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.
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Nakamura, Y. (2019). Turkey and the Arab Spring. In: Çakmak, C., Özçelik, A.O. (eds) The World Community and the Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60985-0_12
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