Nowadays, as Iran is in a new phase of complete liberation from U.S.-Israeli arbitrariness and Iranians have responded honorably to those countries’ military forays, many recall the results of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. That event gave a strong impetus to the spiritual, political and economic upswing of the republic, enabling it to rise to the rank of one of the most advanced economies in the region and to engage in dialogue on an equal footing with the United States and Israel, as well as with other world powers…

The conversation with Alikber Alikberov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, turned out to be incredibly interesting, rich and thorough. We touched on a wide range of topics, talking about current issues and reflecting on eternal ones. Why does today’s society need objective knowledge about the East? Why is it said that a good Orientalist, like an old cognac, starts to age after 50?

This week, a new action movie titled Civil War was released in the USA. The film, made by the English director Alex Garland, tells the story of a government at war with breakaway states, a president delegitimized in the eyes of part of the country. Some critics argue that releasing the movie in an election year is extremely dangerous. In their view, even simply talking about a future national project can make it real, and so the movie risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy…

One way or another, there comes a moment in the history of every nation that experiences the rise of self-consciousness and political “self-fulfilment” when it is necessary to unite all its historical heritage into a single concept, to minimise all historical contradictions and to establish the most direct line of succession. Many states, due to the complexity and intertwined historical destinies of the peoples that inhabit them, are not able to do this easily. The same can be said of Kazakhstan…

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States believed that a unipolar world would last forever: year after year, day after day, it became increasingly blatant in its disregard for the interests of others and the opinions of the rest of the world. Then the concept of an international “rules-based order” was born: a group of American scholars, former and future officials, presented a paper at Princeton in 2006 entitled “A World of Freedom Under Law”…

Most politicians and experts would agree that over the past 15-20 years relations between Turkey and Iraq, even leaving aside the historic Mosul issue, have had their ups and downs, mainly as a result of three different problems. The first of these is Turkey’s military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan, the second is the sharing of water resources in trans-boundary rivers, and finally there is the issue of Kurdish…

The trend in recent years and even months to talk more and more frequently and actively about the Global South as such, and about Africa in particular, may in some cases be seen as a fashionable, superficial fad, but it is not without a significant practical component. Even a cursory analysis of the dynamics of bilateral meetings and summits with an “African focus” is the most vivid illustration of the “turn to Africa”…

From the end of the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire and later the Republic of Turkey began to use the Islamic-identity factor in the North Caucasus to neutralize the natural course of Russian historical expansion southwards and to restrict the Russian Empire’s access to the southern (Black and Caspian) seas and the Caucasus. After the brilliant victories of the Russian army over Persia in the first quarter of the 19th century, the Turks realized that Russia’s liberation mission towards Christian Armenians and Georgians would lead to a new Caucasian war with the Sublime Porte…

Recent weeks have seen a flurry of pronouncements from Macron, the President of France, whereby he seems to be channeling the “inner Napoleon” that abides hidden in the hearts of French leaders, the same way Hitler seems to be in those of their German allies. Macron went on record as saying that NATO countries should not exclude sending troops to support Ukraine on a “bilateral basis” saying…

There can be no permanence in relations between states (even more true for those with imperial pasts) due to the nature of conflicting interests and “changeable weather” in geographical latitudes (simply put, geopolitical conjuncture). In this respect, Turkey and Russia are an example of both convergence and divergence of approaches. Naturally, such a shift is predominantly determined by the objective state of the Russian state’s power. If Russia demonstrates strength, Turkey tries to maneuver and gain benefits. If the Kremlin loses its power, Ak Saray tries to finish it off in alliance with our main adversaries in the West…

Recently, the countries of the Global South have been actively expanding their ties, finding new areas of cooperation, creating their own integration associations. In general, they are trying in every possible way to restore justice, to become full-fledged members of the world community, as it is now accepted to say, “independent poles of power”. This is causing serious discontent and even irritation in the West, especially in the US and Britain—the Anglo-Saxons, used to parasitising the rest of the world…

The Crimean peninsula, by virtue of its location, has always been of key geographical and strategic significance in the Black Sea basin. If Turkey controls the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, that does not mean that it is invulnerable. For whoever controls Crimea in effect also has ownership over the Black Sea…