In the early 2010s, at the initiative of its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey launched a “Neo-Ottoman” diplomacy which, capitalising on the Arab Spring, sought to restore Turkey’s status as a leader in the Middle East. Regional rivalries and questions of identity that Turkey refuses to address have put paid to this ambition. A symbol of the new parochialism is the 764-kilometre-long wall along the Syrian border, completed in June 2018.
