Putting Arab Spring at Perspective: Neo- Ottomanism and Turkey's Middle Eastern Foreign Policy

In order to understand the social and political developments of Turkey, one should look at the continuous course of domestic events which has been taken place in the aftermath of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Thereafter, Government's behavior was anchored around a secular ideology in domestic affairs and desire for alignment with the West in foreign policy. Turkey was the first Muslim country who recognized the state of Israel and join NATO in 1952. During the past years the Turkish Government has strongly pursued nomination for membership in the European Union. However, with the rise of the right-wing governments in the EU, Turkey's chance reduced and it faced with numerous challenges in this regard. With AKP's move into office in 2002, a multilateral foreign policy based on "the strategic depth concept and the strategy of zero problems with neighbors" was initiated by the Erdogan government in order to maximize the national interest of the country in the region. In the aftermath of this change, came in the Spring Arab in the region, which put the multilateral foreign policy of Turkey at jeopardy and under severe scrutiny and test. This is so because from one hand, Turkey has extensive bilateral relations with the authoritarian regimes of the region, on the otherhand gaining the favorable public image to support civil society reforms in the region; it should play nice with these institutions at the same time.