Regional Power Role and Intervention: The Turkish Case Over Syria in the 2000s

Abstract

The article elaborates how Turkey’s relations with Syria, which have been pursued by varying foreign policy instruments and conduct, have greatly affected Turkey’s standing on the Middle East during the 2000s. By employing the relevant concepts, “regional power” and “third party intervention” in the literature, the article aims to explain the changes caused by the Syrian conflict in the AKP’s ( Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi—the Justice and Development Party) foreign policy in a better frame. After the Syrian conflict, Turkey’s increasing intervention in Syria including use of force resulted in a new power projection other than soft power in its regional relations. Neighboring a civil war state caused Ankara to organize its relations with Syria and the Middle East in a new context which requires new mechanisms, new partnerships, and new interpretations in the face of rising nongovernmental armed groups, refugee flows, changing regional alignments, and diverging interests with its major Western allies.

Turkish World and Literary Relations of the East

“…It should be noted that the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century was characterized by the active development of the Enlightenment movement of the Tatar people, who belonged to one of the nationalities that made up tsarist Russia (Sever, 2020).…”

“…At the beginning of the 20th century, the advanced part of the Tatar youth, who sought to replenish the knowledge gained in local madrassas, had the opportunity to get education in the cultural capital of Turkey -Istanbul. Here they received religious education, got acquainted with Turkish literature and culture, and also had the opportunity to get acquainted with European, especially French and Italian literature, which at that time influenced the Turkish creative youth (Sayfulina, 2014;Sever, 2020).…”

“…The history of East Turkic art and culture spans millennia. Within the scientific scope, it is indisputable that the writing of the Turkic people brought up such geniuses as al-Farabi, al-Biruni, al-Fergani, al-Khorezmi, Ulugbek; their science and culture was long before the European ones appeared and left an indelible mark on the history of all mankind (Sever, 2020). P. A. Grinzer states his thoughts about the medieval cultural ties between East and West as follows, "Together with the Mongols and the Arabs, and partially beside them, many fabulous plots have migrated to Europe, which can be found both in European folklore as a whole, and in German shwanks and French fabliaus, and works by Sacks, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Margaret of Navarre, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Lesage, and others."…”

The Power Projection of Turkey in Middle East: (From 2000-2020)

“…Turkey's good relations with Russia make possible to launch Euphrates Shield Operation in August, 2016. One of the main objectives of the operation was to push-back Daesh and Kurdish from the border of Turkey, and "form a wedge between the Kurds of Syria to avert any territorial connection between the cantons of Afrin and Kobane, thus ensuring the territorial continuity of Rojava" (Sever, A. 2020).…”

Here to stay?: Understanding positive and negative attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Turkey

“…For instance, the great majority of the Turkish and Syrian populations are Muslim (Erdoğan, 2020). Additionally, in Turkey, there is an Arab population, especially in the cities close to the Syrian border who have family ties in Syria, and there is a Turkmen population in Syria (Sever, 2020). Furthermore, there are economic ties, especially on the Turkish -Syrian border.…”