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Since the 8th century Turks influenced the Umayyad state on the territory of today's Syria and Ottomans controlled Syria from the 16th century through WWI. Then, Turkish-Syrian relations were shaped by a French mandate and cooled over problems of boundaries, water sharing, and foreign policy. After 9/11, the ideologically Islamic political party led by Erdogan came to power in Turkey in 2002. With the common perception of a Kurdish threat after the Iraq war, both countries adopted collective security' measures. Assad's visit to Turkey and Erdogan's visit to Damascus in 2004 was a milestone for Turkish-Syrian relations. Economic relations bloomed and trade volume increased. Visa requirements were removed in 2009. All these positive developments were challenged with the mass protests against the Assad regime during the Arab Spring. This article is focused on discovering the factors which prompted Turkey to shift its policy towards Syria during the Arab Spring.
INTRODUCTION
Being located at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa, connecting the troubled zones of the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus, where a predominant Muslim population bridges the West (Bagci & Kardas, 2003), Turkey occupies an important geopolitical and geostrategic position in global politics that plays a vital role in determining its foreign policy. As the inheritor of Ottoman empire, Turkey plays a dominant role in regional politics. The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) (AKP) was formed in 2001 with an Islamic ideological background under the leadership of Recep Tavyip Erdogan and swept victory in the general elections of2002, while major political parties that ruled the country for decades failed to secure 10 percent of the vote (Carkoglu, 2002). Since then, the AKP had ruled the country with an increasing voter percentage. Turkey's AKP government has initiated a diversified foreign policy prioritizing its Ottoman legacy and geostrategic importance. This contradicts the traditional Kemalist1 policy. Proposing a "zero problem"2 principle in the vicinity around Turkey, it has developed closer ties with neighboring areas, including the Middle East, Eurasia, Balkans, and Caucasus regions, contrary to the more seclusionist foreign policy of the Kemalist predecessors (Aras, 2009). It called for an activist engagement with all of the regions in Turkey's neighborhood, specifically with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf...