Arabic revolutions impact on Turkish foreign policy (Based on Role theory)

The principle of non-interference in the Middle Eastern issues was the priority of Turkey’s foreign policy strategy during most of the twentieth century. However, over the past decade, Turkey has considerably distanced from its Kemalist and introspective tradition and has become one of the active and influential actors in the region. Consequently, subsequent to the Justice and Development Party coming to power in 2002, Turkey in the framework of the strategy of zero problems with neighbors, established closer relationships with its ancient rivals, namely Syria, Iran and Iraq, adopted the leadership role in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, attended the Arab League conferences and helped United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon. In the same vein, Ankara took on the role of mediator in resolving disputes between Israel and Syria (2008-2010) as well as Iran’s nuclear file. Thus, the question is that, based on such an approach, how can this new Turkish foreign policy be described and understood towards recent developments in the region.Therefore, it is tried to study the foreign policymaking of Turkey within the framework of Role Theory through the main question: “what are the impacts of Arab Revolutions on the role conceptions of Turkish foreign policymaking in the Middle East?” Accordingly, the hypothesis of this research is “the Arab Revolutions have resulted in the national role conceptions of Turkey in regard to the Middle East”.Thus, this article is an attempt to enlighten the roles of Turkey in its new foreign policy-making in the region and towards the recent uprisings in the Middle East through addressing the underneath effective layers that changed Turkey from its previous strategy.