The effects of Syrian civil war on Turkey's Middle East policies (2011-2016)

After the beginning of the events in Syria with the Arab Spring, Turkey initially contacted many times at different levels with Esad regime and called for reform. However, as the Esad regime was slow to react to the reforms and increased violence against its people, it preferred to be with the Syrian people by opposing the Assad regime, which had established good relations. After this stage, the relations between the two countries were broken. The biggest reason for the change is in favor of opponents of Turkey's policies was the expectation of the change of Syrian regime in a short time as the other countries. Although the Syrian policies of Turkey and the United States (USA) were initially similar, it was seen that different perspectives developed between the two countries in the later period of the Syrian civil war. US as military and diplomacy, was not involved in the Syrian crisis to respond to Turkey's security concerns. On the contrary, arms and ammunition were provided to the People's Protection Units (YPG) which was the extension of the terrorist organization of PKK and also thousands of YPG's militants were trained by USA under the name of fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and Damascus (ISIS). This issues caused Turkey to take radical decisions. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Turkey and Russia were found opposite side. The dropping of Russian fighter plane by Turkish jet planes which violates Turkish airspace caused the relationship between the two countries was completely broken. However, the changing of US Syrian policies and supporting of YPG was paved the way to a rapid improvement of Turkey-Russia relationships. Turkey's relationships with Iran in this period, although they were at the opposing poles, they did never come to the breaking point. In addition to the economic relationships between the two countries, their attitude towards Kurdish formation in the region is similar because of the Kurdish population they host. In conclusion, the ongoing crisis in Syria, Turkey is one of the most affected countries in terms of economical, political and security. Parallel to instability in Syria's internal order, Turkey was obligated to follow bumpy relationships with Syria. Turkey's different attitudes about Syria also affected the relationships with countries involved in the Syrian crisis.