ABSTRACT
The outbreak of revolutions in the Arab world caught Turkey in the midst of a dynamic of growing Islamist and authoritarian rule. Various concepts for managing its strategic relationship with the region, such as ‘zero problems with neighbors’, were in tatters. Arab chaos exacerbated Ankara’s relations with all its neighbors – especially Russia, the Kurds, and non-Islamist Arabs like Egypt – as well as the United States. Ties with the European Union were severely strained by the flow of Muslim Arab refugees encouraged by President Erdogan. By 2019, Turkey, Iran and Russia were tentatively cooperating regarding Syria in a dynamic reminiscent of pre-WWI Ottoman-Persian-Czarist ties.
