What is to be expected after the Erdogan-Putin summit? (by Yeghia Tashjian)

On August 5, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a four-hour meeting in Russia to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues. The Sochi summit comes after Ankara scored a diplomatic victory by helping broker a grain deal between Turkey, Ukraine

The Russian-Turkish “Co-opetition” in Eurasia and Beyond (By Yeghia Tashjian)

Introduction  “Co-opetition” was a term coined by Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff to describe a paradoxical strategy of cooperation among competitors, enabling them to collectively achieve mutual gains. It’s a relatively new term in international relations and used occasionally in international trade.

Joe Biden’s presidency and the possible geopolitical shifts in the Middle East (By Yeghia Tashjian)

President Joe Biden has inherited a state of disorder in the Middle East from Donald Trump. Powers such as Russia and Turkey have filled the vacuum as the US has, to a certain degree, isolated itself from regional issues. Biden is expected to

Understanding Armenia’s Syrian Gamble (By Eduard Abrahamyan)

Following bilateral closed-door talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, on September 8, Armenia’s interim Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told journalists that Russia and Armenia would soon launch a “joint humanitarian mission” in Syria (Azatutyun.am, September 8). The operation, apparently requested by

Iran: Deterring Israel by avoiding direct military confrontation (By Yeghia Tashjian)

Despite Iran’s increasing political power in the Middle East particularly after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the escalation of the war in Syria, its options, to engage in a direct confrontation with Israel, are dependent on financial and military factors.

Whither Turkey? The Old, the New and the Not-So-New in 2018 (By Joe Hammoura)

Like a typical adolescent, bent on asserting his phallic worth through projecting raw force right and left – thereby creating a constant scene – Turkey would remain interesting as a site of constant political and economic drama or tragedy, depending on who you

Turkey’s “Mercenaries”: Vengeance from a Woman’s Body in Afrin (By Joe Hammoura)

‘Every war is different. Every war is the same.’ – Anthony Swofford Since the beginning of the Olive Branch Operation in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region on January 20th, the Turkish army has launched massive air and ground force strikes on targets across the

Armenia, the Turkish threat, and the Russian antidote (By Benyamin Poghosyan)

The Afrin events are being used to assert the notion that without Russian military guarantees, and a Russian military base deployed in Armenia, Yerevan will be under a constant threat from a potential Turkish offensive, says Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed. Turkey’s military

Turkey Trapped in the Syrian Crisis (By Samim Akgönül)

For some ten years now, Turkey’s regonal policies have been characterised by U-turns and changes of heart. Henceforth, Ankara is bogged down in the Syrian crisis, caught between Kurdish demands and the terrorist attacks of ISIS. On December 19, 2016, on the eve

Rojava or Northern Syria? (By Cihad Hammy)

On 27 December in the town of Rmeilan (Rimelan), the Northern Syria Constituent Assembly voted to remove “Rojava,” meaning ‘Western (Kurdistan), from the federal system; initially named the “Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria-Rojava and now called the “Democratic Federal System of Northern