Turning ‘Risk’ into ‘Opportunity’: Turkey’s Approach towards Syria, a Western/European Actor in the Middle East
Turning ‘Risk’ into ‘Opportunity’: Turkey’s Approach towards Syria, a Western/European Actor in the Middle East

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the effects of the latest people uprising in Syria on Turkey’s ‘zero problems with neighbors’ foreign policy approach. In this regard, the main argument is that while the developments in Syria have posed strong challenges to Turkey’s decade-long transformative foreign policy understanding, mainly associated with Turkey’s energetic foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, they equally offer Turkey the opportunity to adopt a more humanitarian and democratic foreign policy stance in this context. The years ahead will increasingly see Turkey putting concerns over democracy and human rights at the center of its foreign policy engagements. This will not only contribute to the improvement of Turkey’s deteriorating relations with the western actors, most notably the European Union, but also be in conformity with the ongoing liberal democratic transformation process underway at home.

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