Iran and Middle East Studies / İran ve Ortadoğu Çalışmaları

  This article analyzes the transformation of Turkish foreign policy towards the Middle East during the turbulent years initiated with the Arab Spring. In due course, Turkish policy considerably shifted from proactive engagement with the region in the early 2000s to a bid to leading regional transformation, particularly in the initial years of the Arab Spring. However, the reversal of the Arab Spring increasingly presented a blowback for Türkiye’s regional engagements. The ensuing regional insecurity resulted in a realist turn in Turkish foreign policy, with frequent resort to military instruments and coercive diplomacy. Eventually, regional policies of Türkiye corresponded to the search for de-escalation and normalization within the emerging Middle Eastern order since 2020. The article argues that changing regional dynamics corresponding with domestic conditions influenced and shaped Türkiye’s policies towards the Middle East. Recently, under the impact of the regional-systemic pr...

The independence of the Azerbaijan Republic in October 1991 and the ensuing Azerbaijan-Armenia dispute over Nagorno-­­Karabakh posed a new set of challenges for the Islamic Republic of Iran. One such challenge was that Iran now faced a military conflict between its two neighbours, creating instability adjacent to its borders that eventually turned into a protracted conflict. Although Tehran claimed neutrality,   Azerbaijan blamed Iran for providing tacit support to the Armenians. Another challenge was the ascendance of Abulfaz Elchibey to power in Baku in June 1992, which sparked the so-called threat of pan-Turkism, arguably aimed at the territorial integrity of Iran. Elchibey was an ardent Turkish nationalist who forecasted the downfall of Iran and the “unification of two Azerbaijans” that alarmed Iranian officials about security risks arising from a powerful and independent Azerbaijan. Nonetheless, Baku and Tehran used to have pragmatic relations, particularly after the replaceme...

  After the JDP came to power in Turkey in 2002, much has changed in Turkish foreign policy as well as profound changes in international, After the JDP came to power in Turkey in 2002, much has changed in Turkish foreign policy as well as profound changes in international, regional and domestic contexts surrounding it. Particularly fluctuations in Turkish-Iranian relations in the course of seventeen years have been very puzzling, and complicated, which made it worthy of study. Once, relations between the two states have so improved that some pundits regarded it as an evidence of shift of axis in Turkish foreign policy. Soon later, Ankara and Tehran embroiled in a regional competition that reminded the Ottoman-Safavid rivalry of the 16th century with its strategic and sectarian implications. Later on, they have developed amicable relations. Against this background one may question how could we understand that very dynamic nature of Turkish-Iranian relations? Considering this complic...

  Soon after the Arab Spring shattered Arab politics in the early 2010s, Bashar al-Assad, who had replaced his father as the head of the Baath regime in Syria, has faced with a cohort of domestic, regional and international challenges that aimed to force him to leave the power. Iran has remained one of few international actors that have stood alongside the Assad administration. In this regard, Iran’s policies have varied from diplomatic support to the mobilization of militia forces and troop deployment in support of Assad. Since then Iran’s motivations for standing behind Assad have been questioned by many analysts. Arguments that were put forward to explain Iranian policy toward Syria during the crisis have been ranged from a hypothetical view of Iranian fear of encirclement by the hostile forces to a sectarian consolidation under the Shiite axis. This article asserts that Islamic Republican regime in Iran has a keen interest in maintaining a foothold in Syria, and circulated seve...

  Revolutionary process in Yemen that begun in February 2011 ended up with the Houthi movement’s (that is also called Ansarollah) takeover of Sanaa, the capital city, on September 21, 2014. The takeover has drawn attention to Houthis’ ties with Iran and unleashed a debate on whether the Houthi movement is a new proxy of Tehran. Likewise, subsequent military intervention of Saudi-led international coalition to reverse the Houthis march to power is also discussed within the framework of a proxy war between Riyad and Tehran. However, the frame of proxy relationship leads to the underestimation of multi-layered, intersected confrontations among a multitude of actors, and changing characteristics of the protracted conflict. Indeed, the conflict in Yemen has evolved from the Houthi uprising to a prolonged civil war that drew leading regional powers and had regional ramifications. The Houthis also turned from local insurgents to national actors, and to virtually regional players. Unfoldin...

  İran Siyasi Kültürü Bayram Sinkaya  (Bu yazı, yazarın henüz yayınlanmamış 'İran'da Siyasi Yönetim' başlıklı makalesiden alınmıştır.)      İran’a tarihsel açıdan bakıldığında sıklıkla 2500 yılı aşkın bir ‘devlet geleneği’ne atıf yapılır. Kısmen Oryantalist kısmen milliyetçi tarih anlatısı tarafından kurgulanan bu İran fikri, yerleşik ve sürekli devlet geleneğinin, yani siyasi kültürün olduğunu kabul eder (Dabashi 2008, 15-21). Oysa İran tarih boyunca çeşitli istilalara maruz kalmış ve yıkımlara uğramıştır. Bu tarihi süreç boyunca çeşitli kavimler İran’a yerleşmiş, burayı yurt bilmiş, İran kültürüne katkıda bulunmuş ve burada mevcut kültürlerden de etkilenmiştir. Ayrıca, İran halkları çevrelerindeki toplumlar ve kültürler ile sürekli etkileşim içinde olmuştur. Bu tarihi ve beşeri arka plan İran’ın fiziki coğrafyası ile birleşince modern İran’da çok-kültürlü, çok-dilli ve çok-etnikli bir toplumsal yapı ortaya çıkmıştır. İran ülkesi geniş bir plato olarak nitele...

Originally published at https://ovipot.hypotheses.org/15688, on March 16, 2021.   In late February, 2021, some news outlets headlined a new ‘ tension ’ between Turkey and Iran. Arguably the crisis had erupted over a statement by Iraj Masjidi, the Iranian ambassador to Bagdad, denouncing Turkish military operations in the north of Iraq as a violation of the sovereignty of the Iraqi government. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Mohammad Farazmand, the Iranian ambassador to Ankara, to declare its distress concerning the ‘baseless’ statement. The Ministry warned the ambassador that rather than standing against Turkey’s fight against terrorism as embodied by the PKK, Iran should lend support to Ankara. In return, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Derya Örs, the Turkish ambassador to Tehran, in order to convey its discomfort at a statement by Süleyman Soylu, the Interior Minister, who talked of the presence of PKK militants on Iranian soil. Despite a backgr...

This study has aimed at increasing familiarity of students with regard to major issues in Middle East politics, and providing a framework that would help to analyze regional politics. In this regard, there are two points to be considered. The first one is the necessity of addressing an issue regarding the region through a synchronic and comparative perspective. The second is the fact that any issue addressed in political analyses is a part of a complicated process shaped by interaction of a number of factors in a specific place and historical context. In this study, firstly main factors that are effective in Middle East politics, such as physical and human geography, economy and history are examined. In the second part, leading actors that play critical roles in regional politics, i.e. states, international organizations and extra-regional powers, and the roles of these actors in Middle East politics are discussed. Lastly, contextual factors that emerge in the Middle East, and regional...

ABSTRACT  The Arab Spring of 2011 has revived an academic interest in social movements and revolutions in the Middle East, which was used to be associated with the persistence of authoritarianism. Although the Arab Spring has come up with different outcomes in various countries, currently, there is a burgeoning literature that studies reasons, processes and outcomes of recent social movements and revolutions particularly in the Middle East. In fact, the subject of social movements and revolutions has been underestimated and underexplored in the Middle East studies, or Social Movements studies for a long time. This article argues that despite the negligence of the relevant literature, history of the Middle East has witnessed numerous social movements and revolutions. Then, it provides a historical overview of Middle Eastern revolutions. Against this background, this paper attempts to analyze potential reasons of the aloofness the literature towards social movements and revolutions...