ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analytical account of Turkey's changing relations with Arab states of the Gulf since the founding of the Republic in 1923. It divides the history into two major eras: simply the pre- and the post-1980 periods. While Turkey had been indifferent towards the Gulf in the pre-1980 period, it has been eager to develop stronger economic relations with the Gulf in the post-1980 period. Two prime drivers of Turkey's foreign policy have been security and economics. Turkey's reactions to the Arab Spring were not uniform across all affected countries and even exhibited certain inconsistencies and contradictions. Turkey also sought to diversify its links with the Gulf in the 2000s. Although economics began to drive Turkey's efforts to develop stronger relations with the Gulf, geopolitics facilitated them. In the 1980s, the Gulf states began to face revolutionary Iran as their new geopolitical rival.
