ABSTRACT
The new geopolitics of the post-Soviet space opened new arenas of economic and political opportunities for Turkey. It could demonstrate that it had a role to play in Central Asia and the Caucasus, hitherto ruled by Moscow, and, with the collapse of Yugoslavia and the subsequent conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, in the Balkans as well. The 2002 advent of the AKP, a "moderate" Islam-oriented Justice and Development Party, brought new risks and opportunities to the relationship. On the one hand, the party's roots were in the anti-Western and anti-American Islamist movement of yesteryear and created the risk of a domestic political confrontation between it and the secular civilian and military establishment. On the other hand, the advent through the ballot box of a moderate Islamist party, committed to European integration, validated the US discourse on democracy. The Arab uprisings proved to be a major catalyst in reigniting close relations between Washington and Ankara.
