Turkish Foreign Policy in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings

Abstract

Antonio Gramsci’s famous statement that “the old is dying and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear,” though penned as early as the 1930s, captures and expresses eloquently the transformative and ambivalent nature of the world in which we live. ¹ The Middle East and North Africa in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings can be best characterized by Gramsci’s statement where things are in constant flux and multiple crises overlap to challenge the old order while opening new venues for radical transformation at national and regional levels. As we have already stated in previous chapters, increasing uncertainty and risk are aptly characterizing the nature of global affairs in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. Although this uncertain character was pronounced since the AKP came to power in 2002, the risks and insecurities attached to global affairs have multiplied over the years. Over the course of a decade two critical developments have seriously challenged the AKP government and its foreign policies. The first involved the severe global economic crisis and European sovereign debt problem that erupted in 2008 with serious repercussions for Turkey’s trade relations and European Union accession journey. The second development was the Arab uprisings which erupted in late 2010 in Tunisia and quickly spread to the rest of the region.