Hezbollah during Arab Spring: Its transformation a from local militia to a regional player

When the Arab Spring began in 2010, Hezbollah welcomed protest movements in the streets. It adopted an attitude consistent with its conventional religio-political ideology in the process accelareted by the collapse of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. The leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, considered street movements, which resultedin the departure of Hosnî Mubarak in Egypt, as significant as Hezbollah's victory against Israel in 2006. He also regarded this period of change as an important transition process that could change the destiniy of the entire Middle East. However, a severe shift in Hezbolllah's attitudes can be seen after the Arab Spring spread to Syria. At this point, after the outbreak of social protests in Syria, the changing apporahes of Hezbollah have emerged as it has suppoted the demonstrators against the dictators in Tunisia and Egypt as well as its appeal for immediate fulfilment of the demostrators' demands. Hezbollah argues that conditions were remarkably different in Syria, which is seen by it as a vital part of the 'Axis of Resistance' against the US and Israel in the Middle East, and that the main purpose of emergence of the disorders in Syria is the implementation of a Western project so as to demolish the axis of resistance by constituting a regime change, something in line with Israel's interest. Therefore, Hezbollah has been within a new process in which sympathetic attitudes towards the demostrators in other countries, in which the Arab Spring has emerged, disappeared in the case of the demonstrators in Syria. Definig the opponents in Syria as 'agent', 'jihadist' or 'henchman of the US', Hezbollah's discourse on 'the oppressed', which has occupied a remarkable place in the conventional ideology of Hezbollah, was disregarded in the case of any threat to strategic interests of the organization in Syria, and it has mostly acted on the ground of denominational belonging. Hezbollah remains as a strong regional actor operating in several countries such as Yemen as the expansion of its sphere of influence is not going to be limited to Syria and Iraq during the Arab Spring. Key words: Hezbollah, Arab Spring, non-state actor, Syrian civil war