Arab Scholarship on Turkey's Regional Role before and after the Rise of the AKP

Abstract

This article examines scholarship from the Arab world on Turkish foreign policy since the early 1980s to show shifts in Arab perceptions of Turkey. Prior to 2002, Arab scholars were focused on the competition between Turkey's secular and religious elites, with largely negative views of the country's policies in the Middle East. With the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Arab scholars began to look more positively toward Turkey, as it sought to play a new role in the Middle East. With the Arab uprisings from 2011 onward, the Arab literature on Turkey began to vary, reflecting the developments in Turkey's relationships with scholars' respective countries.