The Berbers are the indigenous people of North and West Africa, the ethnic substrate on which Arabization was later superimposed. Despite the fact that Arabs make up the majority, a significant part of the population from Libya to Mauritania has Berber roots. The size of the Berber (Amazigh) population is estimated to be between 30 and 50 million people, making ...

On February 11, the Iranian Guardian Council, which is in charge of approving the competency of the candidates running for election, named the candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections on February 21. According to the Iranian Interior Ministry’s statistics, 16,145 candidates registered to run, but as many as 9000 (according to nonofficial statistics) were disqualified. The exact number will be ...

Last year, a movie called “Sabre Dance” came out about an episode in the life of Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978), a Soviet composer with Armenian roots (born and raised in Tbilisi-Georgia under Russian rule). Kachaturian most famously wrote the music for the “Sabre Dance” section of the ballet “Gayane”, which was partially synthesized from an unnamed Armenian folk song and tied ...

The 56th Munich Security Conference this year convened around the topic of ’Westlesness’. The conference report stressed that ‘the world is getting less and less Western’, while debate between the US and European leaders around the ‘collapsing of the Atlantic Alliance’ took center stage at the conference. At the Munich Security Conference (MSC 2020) this year, 30 heads of states ...

A country’s foreign policy is a complex synthesis, matured and distilled with the accumulation of experience over many years. Therefore, if an extraordinary change in the global balance of power does not occur, there will likewise be no radical change in a country’s foreign policy. Because Turkey was unable to fully grasp the global paradigm changes of the post-Cold War ...

An annual security conference was held in Munich from February 14 to 16. This international forum, which takes place every year in the capital of Bavaria, was originally conceived as a joint event between NATO and the conservative Christian Social Union. Today it is more informal, but the agenda and high level list of participants demonstrates that the problems of ...

Turkey, which has based its economic growth on export development and made significant strides in recent years (especially during the AKP administration) has taken a strategic approach to the African continent in search of new markets. Moreover, it is seeking to expand its political, economic and commercial presence on the continent. Turkey, as a country that has a positive outlook ...

The Idlib crisis in Syria The martyrdom of 13 Turkish soldiers in two separate strikes by the Syrian Arab Army has increased political and the military tension between Turkey and Syria, and Russia as well. The dialogue between Turkey, Syria and Russia alongside the involvement of US, whose special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey recently visited Ankara, has brought to ...

On February 13, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Pakistan. His official purpose was participation in the sixth round of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLCC); a joint session of the parliament in Islamabad was also scheduled. The President of Pakistan Imran Khan personally met with the Turkish President at the Nur Khan Airbase and ...

The Idlib crisis continues The Presidents of Turkey and the US – Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump – discussed the problems of Libya and Syria during a telephone conversation this week. In the course of the conversation, they noted the need for stability in Libya and an end to escalation in Idlib. In addition, the leaders agreed to resume ...