ABSTRACT
The Middle East has become an important item in the foreign policy agendas of both Turkey and Russia since the early 2000s. This chapter looks into the major points of convergence and divergence between Turkey and Russia regarding the changed political atmosphere and conditions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria in the wake of the internal rebellions in these states against the oppressive and corrupt management of the long-standing rulers. The government in Bahrain could quash the rebellion by inviting foreign army units from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries to the country. Turkey had more than ten billion dollars of investment in Libya, especially in the construction sector. The civil war in Syria brought forth an explicit disagreement and difference of policy between Turkey and Russia regarding the future of the regime in Damascus. Turkey and Syria were hardly on friendly terms during Cold War years because the two states had been members of rival power blocs.
