The 2011 Arab Spring has not only tested the Turkish and the American role in the MiddleEast. Rather, it constitutes a major challenge to the consistence and the achievements of the AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) “zero-problems” foreign policy, and threatens the preservation of Turkish and American regional interests. However, the Arab uprisings also have the potential to engender other, more positive changes in the context of the Turkish-American relationship.

Turkey’s friendly relations with Hamas and Hezbollah constitute an indisputable reality in the Middle East the last six years. The AKP government has brought Turkey closer to the two radical Islamist organisations, to the detriment of the country’s long existing relations with Israel and the West, and despite the harsh internal reactions by the Kemalist establishment. Dynamics have started to change in the region. It remains to be seen what these changes will bring about for all Middle Eastern countries.