Saudi Arabia's rulers are doing their best to prevent the spread of democracy in the Arab world. Tunisia took them by surprise while Egypt was such a tsunami that despite all their efforts to keep Mubarak in office they couldn't. In Bahrain they didn't wait for a U.S. intervention and took matters in their own hands to crush the Shia uprising. The only two exceptions of supporting anti-dictators movements are in Libya (it was personal) and now in Syria (to better manage the Iran threat).
Meliha Benli Altunisik explores the love-hate relationship between Saudi Arabia and Turkey in her Foreign Affairs' article "Bitter Frenemies". Excerpts below:
"The Saudi and Turkish visions for post-Assad Syria differ. Saudi Arabia advocates a Sunni Islamist regime and is establishing ties with the more radical elements in the country. Turkey, on the other hand, favors the participation of all actors. Ankara is engaging and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, while also pressuring the group to accept a more participatory and representative Syria to prevent civil war in the post-revolution era.
In the meantime, Saudi Arabia's involvement in Syria threatens to undermine Turkey's "zero problems" foreign policy. Saudi Arabia is already casting the conflict in Syria as a sectarian one. Thus, Ankara's close cooperation with Riyadh -- and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood -- places Turkey squarely within the so-called Sunni camp. Such a development would limit Turkey's soft power in the region. In other words, although opportunities for rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey arise from time to time, there are hard limitations to their relationship. They want different things in the region, and have different policies for getting them. On the other hand, as long as there are clear economic benefits in this bilateral relationship, both sides will gloss over their differences as long as they can."
