With neighboring Syria in crisis, the Arab Spring has finally arrived on Turkey’s doorstep – and with it, one big headache for a government that has spent recent years staking its political fortunes on the region.
Since coming to power in 2002, the Islamic-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to become a kingpin in the Muslim world, driven by shared religious sensibility and economic expansionism. Turkish ministers have jetted between Middle Eastern capitals, signing trade deals and political cooperation protocols even as long-standing efforts to join the European Union have cooled. Erdogan stepped up criticism of Israel and became a hero on Arab streets for it.
Called neo-Ottomanism by some, the new foreign policy was based on the maxim “zero problems with neighbors.” As long as trade flourished and business was good, the argument went, why couldn’t everybody just get along. Bashir Assad’s Syria – which shares
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