{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center | width = 100 | image1 = Recep Tayyip Erdogan.PNG | alt1 = Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | image2 = Bashar al-Assad (cropped).jpg | alt2 = Syrian president Bashar al-Assad | footer = Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Bashar al-Assad launched the Levant Quartet in 2010.{{r|quartet}} }}
The '''Levant Quartet''' was a formal economic and cultural partnership of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan formed in December 2010.{{r|quartet}} The Quartet had the stated aim of eventually giving rise to an economic, cultural, monetary and political union similar to the European Union in the Middle East.{{r|quartet}}{{r|atlantic}} Projected member states included the four founders as well as Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.<ref name="quartet">{{cite news |first=Gökhan |last=Kurtaran |title=Mediterranean quartet taking step toward union, says Syrian minister |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=mediterranean-quartet-takes-a-step-towards-a-union-says-syrian-minister-2010-12-03 |date=3 December 2010 |newspaper=Hürriyet Daily News}}</ref>
The Quartet agreement was formed following a decade of increasing trade and diplomatic traffic between Turkey and the other member states.<ref name="atlantic">{{cite news |first=Soner |last=Cagaptay |author-link=Soner Cagaptay |title=The Muslim Brotherhood's Fall Lands Turkey an Unexpected Ally: Kurds |newspaper=The Atlantic |date=16 August 2013 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-muslim-brotherhoods-fall-lands-turkey-an-unexpected-ally-kurds/278775/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213170111/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-muslim-brotherhoods-fall-lands-turkey-an-unexpected-ally-kurds/278775/ |archive-date=13 December 2013}}</ref> The ''Levant Business Forum'' was set up, with a secretariat at Beirut, with the intention of enabling free circulation of goods and people among the Quartet states.{{r|newlevant}} Also planned was a customs union called ''Shamgen'', a pun on ''Sham'' and the EU's Schengen Agreement,<ref>{{cite news |first=Elizabeth |last=Hurd |title=Time to stand up, Turkey |newspaper=Al-Arabiya |date=27 April 2011 |url=http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2011/04/27/146919.html}}</ref> in which Iran and Iraq would participate by issuing joint visas with Turkey and Syria.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-03-07/iran-turkey-syria-iraq-will-issue-joint-visa-hamshahri-says |title=Iran, Turkey, Syria, Iraq Will Issue Joint Visa, Hamshahri Says |newspaper=Bloomberg |date=7 March 2011}}</ref> The project was effectively put to a stop when Turkey imposed economic sanctions on Syria in the wake of the uprising in Syria, less than a year after it was first announced.<ref>{{cite news |first=Gökhan |last=Kurtaran |title=Regional free zone attempt stillborn |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/regional-free-zone-attempt-stillborn.aspx?pageID=238&nID=8276&NewsCatID=344 |newspaper=Hürriyet Daily News |date=1 December 2011}}</ref> The participants in the original Levant Quartet agreement did announce their intention to resume negotiations "as soon as the situation normalizes".<ref name="newlevant">{{cite web |title=Over the Horizon: A New Levant |website=World Bank Group |year=2014 |url=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/06/24/000333037_20140624104152/Rendered/PDF/889500ESW0whit0x385254B00OUO0900ACS.pdf}}</ref>
World Bank analysts saw "sizable" benefits for the Levantine countries from the expected increase in trade that the Levant Quartet would have generated, had the Syrian Civil War not halted it.<ref>{{cite report |first1=Elena |last1=Ianchovichina |first2=Maros |last2=Ivanic |title=The economic impact of the Syrian war and the spread of ISIS |publisher=The World Bank |series=MENA Knowledge and Learning Quick Notes Series |number=140 |date=January 2015 |url=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/01/26/000333037_20150126231347/Rendered/PDF/938810BRI0QN140D0virtual0collection.pdf}}</ref> Soner Cagaptay commented that the plan fit within the AK Party's vision of Turkey as "the Brazil of the Middle East, a rising economic power with a burning desire to shape regional events".{{r|atlantic}}
==See also== * Accession of Turkey to the European Union * Arab Spring * Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
Category:2010 in international relations Category:2011 in international relations Category:Economic integration Category:Foreign relations of Jordan Category:Foreign relations of Lebanon Category:Foreign relations of Syria Category:Foreign relations of Turkey