Abstract

The recent Arab Spring led to discussions whether Turkey constitutes a model of democracy for the Arab countries. Instead of relying on Orientalist sounding «unfit» between Islam and democracy and promotion of Turkey as a West-friendly moderate Islamic regime, this article proposes to discuss the Turkish «breeze» in the Arab Spring with respect to its cultural and democratization-related dimensions. Turkey's real export potential to Arab countries has been limited to soap operas rather than democracy. Furthermore, Turkey has a long way to go towards democratization. Therefore, instead of asking whether Turkey could be a model for the Arab world, we need to ask whether Turkey is a model for the people of Turkey in the fi rst place.