Author: Ali Abo Rezeg
Affiliation: Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University
Organization/Publisher: Insight Turkey/ SETA Foundation
Date/Place: Summer 2021/Turkey
Type of Literature: Analysis
Number of Pages: 22
Keywords: Qatar, Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, Egyptian revolution
Brief:
Qatar has stood out in the Arab world for supporting most of the popular uprisings that took place in its geopolitical reach. Qatar’s famous media network Al Jazeera worked as a major influencer in mobilizing the masses in late 2010, which turned out to be called the year of the Arab Spring. There are multiple factors and geopolitical interests of Qatar to support these uprisings. One of them is the motivation to counter Saudi’s regional hegemony. Qatar is also helping countries in conflict, like Syria and Libya, financially and militarily and has also called out on international humanitarian aid for the victims of war. Qatar’s competition with the UAE can be counted as one of its other motives to be a source of policy changes. After the Egyptian revolution, Qatar allied itself with the Pro-revolution figures, while the UAE did the total opposite by collaborating with the anti-revolution groups. Also, the Qatari people coming out in support of the Arab Spring speaks a lot about the country’s popular legitimacy.
By: Ruby Clayton, CIGA Research Associate
