‘Radical Turkey’ Myth A Casualty Of Arab Spring

The Arab Spring has upended a lot of theories about the Middle East, but one of the most notable (and thus far least remarked-upon) of these casualties has to be the idea that Turkey under the AKP had become part of a "radical" axis intent on overturning the regional status quo. While Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was was the first world leader to call for Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to step down, once protests spread to countries where Turkey had far more substantial investments — Libya and Syria — the extent of Turkey’s interest in maintaining the existing order became far more apparent.

One of the more interesting developments of the past several weeks has been the extent to which Turkey has ramped up criticism of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on demonstrators. As refugee flows from areas targeted by the Assad regime have increased, so has Turkish pressure on Assad to dial it down. Turkish president Abdullah Gul criticized Assad’s latest reforms-promising speech earlier today as "not enough." Turkey has also reportedly demanded that Assad remove his brother Maher from leadership in the security forces.

As my colleagues Michael Werz, Tyler Evans and I noted in a recent piece, the Syria relationship is considered one of the crown jewels of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davotoglu’s "zero problems" foreign policy. The willingness to jeopardize that relationship indicates that Turkey’s foreign policy calculus is more complex that many have given it credit for. Turkey’s new, more critical stance represents an important shift, one that the U.S. should take advantage of. Working closely with Turkey is essential for ending the violence in Syria in the short term, but also for shaping and encouraging Turkey’s growing leadership role in a positive direction in the longer term.