Turkey and the Arab spring : the revolutions in Turkey’s near abroad

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (henceforth MENA) are areas of conflict and opposed perceptions. The last three months have seen unprecedented protests and revolutions in almost all Arab countries (“Arab Spring”), starting in Tunisia with the flight of Ben Ali and his family, spreading to Egypt with the overthrow of Mubarak and his government, and to Libya with its civil war and most recently to Syria. Some of the demonstrators’ criticisms and demands were the same across the region, namely end to corruption, fall of the regime, freedom, creation of employment opportunities, while others were country-specific. The demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of participants, who often occupied the capital’s main square, started peacefully but often turned violent, when the demonstrators clashed with security forces.