Turkish-Saudi Relations: A Regional Perspective (2003-2015)

The article aims to understand how the relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have evolved in the 2000s, through applying the regional level of analysis. It examines how the regional relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which ranges between regional cooperation and regional competition, affected the political, economic and military relations between Ankara and Riyadh through the period of study between 2003 until 2015 and how Saudi- Turkish relations affected Iran’s regional status. The hypothesis posed in response to the question is the regional context, which impacted the Turkish-Saudi relations positively after the US invasion of Iraq and negatively during the Arab uprisings and more specifically in the Egyptian uprising in 2013. In case, of Syria, the high level of coordination appeared since 2014. The Regional Security Complex Theory, Securitization and De-Securitization will be implemented to understand the regional interaction between Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and its effects on Iran.