Explains why Turkey embraced the Arab Spring despite the risk both domestically and internationally.Turkeys enthusiastic embrace of the Arab Spring set in motion a dynamic that fundamentally altered its relations with the United States Russia Qatar Egypt Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates and Iran and transformed Turkey from a soft power to a hard power in the tangled geopolitics of the Middle East. Birol Baskan and mer Taspinar argue that the ruling Justice and Development Partys AKP Islamist background played a significant role in the countrys decision to embrace the uprisings and the subsequent foreign policy direction the country has pursued. They demonstrate that religious ideology is endogenous toshaping and in turn being shaped byTurkeys various engagements in the Middle East. The Nation or the Ummah emphasizes that while Islamist religious ideology does not provide specific policy prescriptions it does shape the way the ruling elite sees and interprets the context and the structural boundaries they operate within.