Is Iran making a comeback to the South Caucasus? (By Yeghia Tashjian)

In one of my previous articles “Iran and the Second Artsakh War: Has Tehran lost its leverage over the South Caucasus?” I argued that from a geopolitical and geo-economic point of view, Iran lost its influence in the region after the 2020 war.

Book Review | Political Relations Between Mongols and Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (By Yeghia Tashjian)

In his book Political Relations between Mongols and Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (1236-1277AD) and its impact on Islamic History (published in Beirut, 2020), Dr. Abdulla bin Jassim Ali Al-Thani writes about the regional order in the Near East during the 13th century and the impact of

What kind of Artsakh do we want? (By Yeghia Tashjian)

I wanted to write about this a long time ago, even before the war. But the Artsakh War, its devastating outcome on the Armenian nation and its political ideology pushed me to raise some provocative questions and arguments. What kind of Artsakh do

One Year After the Beirut Blast (By Yeghia Tashjian)

On August 4, 2020 at around 6 PM local time, a huge chemical explosion shook Beirut and its surrounding cities. The Port of Beirut was no more. But the destruction was not limited to the Port; the areas surrounding the explosion site along the

Pashinyan’s Foreign Policy Challenges (By Yeghia Tashjian)

Caretaker PM Nikol Pashinyan and his party’s euphoria from election victory will soon disappear, since for them, the post-election period will be full of foreign policy challenges linked to the post-war regional dynamics in the South Caucasus. These challenges range from Armenia’s balancing

“Shushi Declaration” and its Implications on the South Caucasus and Beyond (By Yeghia Tashjian)

On June 15, 2021, during his visit to occupied Shushi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the Shushi Declaration with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to cement “allied relations” between the two countries. The declaration consists of many important points including mutual defense guarantees and

The “Armenia Alliance” Electoral Platform and the Parliamentary Elections (By Yeghia Tashjian)

The political coalition “Hayastan Dashinq” (hereinafter “Armenia Alliance”) held its founding ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia on May 9, 2021 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan, Ishkhan Saghatelyan on behalf of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D)

Syunik and the Geo-Economic Future of the South Caucasus (By Yeghia Tashjian)

The recent Azerbaijani border line encroachment towards Syunik should not surprise us at all. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s threats after the war over Artsakh to forcibly open a “corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Syunik, the role of Azerbaijani media in mobilizing its people for

The Class Struggle in the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide (By Yeghia Tashjian)

Starting in the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was undergoing an economic transition and European powers were meddling in the empire’s economic system. This factor gave rise to the Christian middle class at the expense of the traditional Muslim middle class. To counter this

Book Review | Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination (by Yeghia Tashjian)

Early in his career, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler took inspiration from Benito Mussolini, his senior colleague in fascism; this fact is widely known. But an equally important role model for Hitler and the Nazi Party was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern