Turk image in Middle East: Turkey?s new role in Middle East in Arab media (2002-2009)

The Turkish Arabic relations had ups and downs since the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Despite the common religion they share, Arabs and Turks have historically preferred to keep their distance to each other. The economic developments in the 1990s have also negatively affected the relationship. The Turkey-Syria crisis that followed was the point where the relations were the most tense. The 2002 elections in Turkey fundamentally changed the direction of Turk-Arab relations from negative to a highly positive stance. Not only did Turkey try to improve relationships with its neighbors, but the country also took an active role in trying to solve the problems in the region which eventually positioned Turkey to become a country with an important role. Turkey's rapid rise in the region did not go unnoticed by the Arabs. This study analyses the changes in Turkey's foreign policy in the last 18 years. To do this, we tried to comprehend how a rising Turkey was perceived by the Arab press starting from 2002. Forming a list of the four most prominent Arab newspapers, we collected pieces commenting on Turkey written by Arab columnists and complied these together. From this perspective, our study is an analysis of the Arabic interpretation of the rapid Turkish rise in the Middle East, and how it developed in time.The study is formed of two main parts: In the first part, we try to understand Turkey's foreign policy in the region in the 1990s and why Turkey became distant to the Middle East. In the second part, we tried to analyze how the Arab press saw the improvement in relations between Turkey and the Middle Eastern countries following the change in Government in 2002.Key words: Arab Press, Turkey's New Role, Foreign Policy, Middle East.