Edited by Raymond Hinnebusch and Özlem Tür (Ashgate, 2013) In
1997 Turkey and Syria were on the brink of war, engaged in a
very real power struggle. Turkey was aligned with Syria’s main
enemy, Israel, and there were seemingly intractable differences
on the issues of borders, the sharing of river waters and trans-
border communities. In less than a decade, relations were
transformed from enmity to amity. Border issues and water
sharing quarrels were moving towards amicable settlement and the
two states’ policies toward the Kurdish issue converging. Turkey
undertook to mediate the Syrian-Israeli conflict and close
political and economic relations were developing rapidly between
the two states. Yet, with the Syrian Uprising, relations
returned to enmity What explains these remarkable changes? Given
that Turkey and Syria are two pivotal states in the region, what
are the implications of this changing relationship for the
international politics of the Middle East, the balance of power
and regional stability? In thi