Abstract
Republican Turks have long liked being talked about as a model for eform in other countries. At school pupils are taught how Ataturk’s Turkey constituted an example for liberation and transformation of the colonized world into independent states. The Economist in December 1991 had announced Turkey as the “Star of Islam” and model for the newly emerging Muslim ex-Soviet republics.1 Turkey unhesitatingly offered itself as an agabey (big brother) for these republics with little success. At the end of the decade, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ismail Cem, envisaged Turkey as a model “combining Islamic traditions with democratic institutions, human rights, secular law and gender equality” for its neighborhood.2
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Notes
Ismail Cem, Turkiye, Avrupa, Avrasya (Istanbul: Bilgi Universitesi Yayinlari, 2004), 64.
Mensur Akgun et al, Turkiye’de Dis Politika Algisi (Istanbul: TESEV Yayinlari, 2011), 23.
Dietrich Jung, “Turkey and the Arab World: Historical Narratives and New Political Realities,” Mediterranean Politics 10, no. 1 (2004): 12.
Taha Ozhan, “The Arab Spring and Turkey: The Camp David Order vs. the New Middle East,” Insight Turkey 13, no. 4 (2011): 63.
Seymen Atasoy, “The Turkish Example.” For a broader discussion of how AKP is received in the Arab world, see Mounir Shafiq, “Turkey’s Justice and Development Party through Arab Eyes,” Insight Turkey 11, no. 1 (2009): 33–41.
Serah Kekec, “Turkiye’nin Avrupa-Akdeniz Ortaklari ile Serbest Ticaret Anlasmalari,” Ortadogu Analiz 2, no. 24 (2011): 85–93, 91.
Seymen Atasoy, “The Turkish Example,” Middle East Policy 18, no.3 (2011): 92–94.
M. Hakan Yavuz, Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1–4.
Vali Nasr, “The Rise of Muslim Democracy,” Journal of Democracy 16, no. 2 (2005): 13–27.
Kemal Kirisci, “Democracy diffusion: the Turkish experience” in Linden, Ronald, et. al, eds., Turkey and Its Neighbors: Foreign Relations in Transition (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2011), 145–171.
Abdullah Gul, Horizons of Turkish Foreign Policy in the New Century (Ankara, TC Disisleri Bakanligi Yayini, 2007), 528.
Kemal Kirisci, “Democracy diffusion: the Turkish experience” in Ronald Linden et al., Turkey and Its Neighbors: Foreign Relations in Transition (Boulder: Lyne Rienner, 2011).
Nathalie Tocci, ed., Turkey and the Arab Spring: Implications for Turkish Foreign Policy from a Transatlantic Perspective (Washington DC: GMF Mediterranean Paper Series, 2011), 5.
Mensur Akgun et al., Ortadogu’da Turkiye Algisi 2010 (Istanbul: TESEV Yayinlari, 2011), 14.
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© 2012 The Asan Institute for Policy Studies
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Kirisci, K. (2012). Is the Turkish Model Relevant for the Middle East?. In: Henry, C., Ji-Hyang, J. (eds) The Arab Spring. Asan-Palgrave Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137344045_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137344045_10
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