Archives Turkey - Page 35 of 44 - New Eastern Outlook

For more than a year now, since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the question of admitting two North European countries, Finland and Sweden, to NATO has been on the table. As you know, Helsinki and Stockholm chose to abandon their neutral status and apply for NATO membership in March 2022. It is clear that Russia did not pose a nuclear or other military threat to Sweden or Finland. Furthermore, Moscow has always respected the neutrality of its Scandinavian neighbors in Stockholm and Helsinki…

On June 28, on the last day of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, a demonstrator burned a copy of the Koran outside the Central Mosque in Stockholm. During this demonstration, which the Swedish police allowed to go ahead, a man tore pages out of the Koran, wiped his shoes on them, placed a piece of bacon in the book, and then burned it. About 200 onlookers were present. The Swedish Prime Minister stated that the protest was lawful, but not appropriate. This was not the first time that an incident of this type has triggered discussions on the problems posed by free speech and democracy…

Turkey and Iran continue to be important Middle Eastern nations. Due to their geographical proximity, imperial past, violent rivalry, theological tensions (between Sunnism and Shiism), and, of course, the continuous divergence of geopolitical interests, both nations have a rich history of relations. There were multiple Turkish-Persian clashes and wars, with various interruptions and varying degrees of success, during the Ottoman and Persian empires. Regarding the significance of the harem in the Ottoman Empire, historians have observed that…