Columnists

Why the US-Brokered Gaza “Peace Plan” is Iraq 2.0: Disaster Capitalism in Full Effect

Omar Mukhtar Street in Gaza City, showing damage from Israeli bombing, February 23, 2025 | Picture Credits: Jaber Badwen/Wikimedia Commons Donald Trump’s new ‘20-Point Gaza Peace Plan’ is being sold as a blueprint for stability after one of the most devastating wars in recent memory. Yet beneath its humanitarian veneer lies a familiar pattern. Like […]

Bamo Nouri

The Changing Politics of Turkey’s Foreign Policy Orientation

Meeting of Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara | Picture Credits: Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) On 18 September 2025, Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main ally since summer 2015, called for […]

Cengiz Gunes

The Lost Potential of Political Pluralism on the Iranian Plateau

Iran is among the Middle East’s most diverse societies in terms of nationality and language. Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Lors, Arabs, Baluchs, Turkmens, Mazandaranis, and Gilaks each possess distinct languages and territories. It is often regarded as a multi-ethnic mosaic. Before succumbing to the nation-state paradigm, which began in the late nineteenth century during the Qajar […]

Rojin Mukriyan

Between Oil, Stability and Neutrality: China’s Role in the New Middle East

Photo credits: Asian Development Bank / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Since it first announced its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on September 7th 2013, China started to move from a distant economic partner to an active strategic actor in the world and in the Middle East, particularly. China’s rise combines commercial interventions in sectors such […]

Seevan Saeed

Integration in Syria: Between Denial and Recognition

Photo Credit: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) After a period of stagnation and setbacks in negotiations on the implementation of the March 10 agreement between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Interim Government, last week witnessed a significant uptick in activity. The meeting in Damascus between the SDF leadership and Syrian interim president, […]

Ferhad Hemmy

Claim versus Record: Who Blocks the Road to Peace between the PKK and Turkey?

Picture credits: Presidency of the Republic Türkiye Directorate of Communications website On 8 October 2025, just before his visit to Ankara, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, in a speech at the MERI Forum held in Erbil, said that he felt Turkey is “very serious” about the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). “Qandil […]