Russian-Muslim Confrontation in the Caucasus: Alternative Visions of the Conflict between Imam Shamil and the Russians, 1830–1859. Ed. and trans. Thomas Sanders, Ernest Tucker, and Gary Hamburg. SOAS/RoutledgeCurzon Studies on the Middle East. London: Routledge Curzon, 2004. xvi, 264 pp. Notes. Chronology. Glossary. Index. Maps. £65.00, hard bound.

Slavic Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 904-905
Author(s):  
Austin Jersild
Keyword(s):  
Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4948 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-335
Author(s):  
MAJID TAVAKOLI ◽  
ASADOLLAH HOSSEINI-CHEGENI ◽  
GRAHAM N. STONE ◽  
SEYED E. SADEGHI ◽  
R. J. ATKINSON ◽  
...  

We provide a checklist of the gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipinae) of Iran, and place these records in a biogeographical perspective on three spatial scales, comprising (i) the Western Palaearctic, (ii) Western Asia (Turkey, the southern Caucasus and the Middle East) and (iii) regions within Iran. We present distribution and biological data for 121 species in 24 genera, representing nine of the 12 known cynipid gall wasp tribes. The most species–rich tribe in Iran is the oak gall wasp tribe Cynipini, with 74 species and 11 genera. Cynipid species richness is highest in the central and northern Zagros, with a distinctively different fauna in the forests along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Of the species found in Iran, 63 have distributions that extend westwards far into Europe, and can be considered Western Palaearctic species. Twenty four species comprise a distinct eastern component within the Western Palaearctic, with distributions that include Iran and some or all of Turkey, the Middle East and the Caucasus. Twenty one species are apparently endemic to Iran, with distinct Zagros and Caspian components. We highlight biological and phylogeographic processes that may underlie these patterns. 


Author(s):  
Maria Koinova

This chapter and the following Chapter 9 are interconnected as they both discuss Armenian diaspora mobilizations. This chapter focuses on the transnational social field and the four types of diaspora entrepreneurs. Armenians have lived in the Caucasus and the Middle East prior to the 1915 Armenian genocide, a defining moment historically and especially for the diaspora. Self-determination claims of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have been interconnected historically, considered part of ‘Eastern Armenia’. They both seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991. An independent Armenia was internationally recognized as a state, unlike the de facto state of Karabakh, unrecognized at present. A devastating 1988 earthquake and a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh (1992–4) created opportune moments for the diaspora in Western countries to connect to Armenia and Karabakh. The diaspora in Europe was primarily formed by survivors and descendants of the Armenian genocide, with roots in ‘Western Armenia’ in Turkey and the larger Middle East, and organized by diaspora parties. Fragility of statehood in Armenia and Karabakh, and recurrent violence and authoritarianism in the Middle East continued to create push factors for Armenians to emigrate across the globe and for the diaspora to mobilize. The highest priority in the diaspora, especially in Europe, remained the recognition of the Armenian genocide, while Karabakh’s recognition and supporting Armenia took a back seat. The chapter presents data on migration in the Armenian field, in the Caucasus, the Middle East and globally, and specifies the individual profiles of Armenian diaspora entrepreneurs.


After the 1990, it is very important that in the immediate vicinity of the geopolitical changes that have occurred in Turkey. The first changes is Iran and Iraq on the edge. Especially the Turkey-Iran and Iraq, all kinds of geopolitical developments occurring in the triple border, to a critical value. Because the triple border Iran and Iraq by Turkey as a safety check. For this reason, has become the center of all kinds of illegal developments. Iran, conducts a policy of asymmetric after 1990, in the Caucasus, and the Middle East and Central Asia geography. This policy from time to time an anti-U.S. hostility toward the West and exacerbate. The attitude of the West and the United States due to the foreign policy of Turkey's neighbor Iran rather problematic periods. Because the entire Middle East and Central Asia, Turkey's policies on Iran, which is a pretty effective. For this reason, Iran, Turkey is a country that needs to be analyzed by far the best.


Author(s):  
Zygmunt Frajzyngier

Afroasiatic languages are the fourth largest linguistic phylum, spoken by some 350 million people in North, West, Central, and East Africa, in the Middle East, and in scattered communities in Europe, the United States, and the Caucasus. Some Afroasiatic languages, such as Arabic, Hausa, Amharic, Somali, and Oromo, are spoken by millions of people, while others are endangered with extinction. As of the early 21st century, the phylum is composed of six families: Egyptian (extinct), Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic, Berber, and Chadic. There are some typological features shared by all families, particularly in the domain of phonology. Languages are also typologically quite distinct with respect to syntax and functions encoded in the grammatical systems. Some Afroasiatic languages, such as Egyptian, Akkadian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ge’ez, have a longtime written tradition, but for many languages no writing system has yet been proposed or adopted. The Old Semitic writing system gave rise to the modern alphabets used in thousands of unrelated contemporary languages. Two Semitic languages, Hebrew (with some Aramaic) and Arabic, were used to write the Old Testament and the Koran, the holy books of Judaism and Islam.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruslan Shangaraev ◽  
Aidamir Valiev

Turkey offers itself to be a regional leader for the Middle East, North Africa, partly for the Balkans and the Caucasus, while pursuing its own interests, not least economic ones. Turkey's foreign policy activation, and not only in the South, but also in the North Caucasus, is probably intended to create an additional platform for foreign policy bargaining with Moscow on issues of interest to Ankara. When analyzing the foreign policy of Turkey during the rule of the ruling Justice and Development Party, of course, you need to pay special attention to the foreign policy concept of neo-Ottomanism, the architect of which is Ahmet Davutoglu. The developed new approach "strategic depth" means that for Turkish diplomacy, Turkey's deep historical and cultural roots in the Balkans, the Middle East, the Greater Caucasus and Central Asia (former territories of the Ottoman Empire) are more important than the existing state borders. The pragmatism of Ankara's foreign policy is also manifested in a sober assessment of the popularity in the Caucasus of such ideas as Great Turan (a pan-Turkic project of a single state for all ethnic Turks) and neo-Ottomanism. For Caucasians, the times of the rule of the Ottoman Empire are the golden age of prosperity. Turanism is more aimed at awakening "kindred feelings" based on the common Turkic heritage. "They are implementing practical humanitarian projects, identifying leaders of public opinion who are ready to cooperate. Ankara is pursuing a policy of small steps in order to change the social and cultural image of the region in the long term. In general, Turkish leader is confident that due to historical reasons and the realities of modern politics The Caucasus is a zone of direct strategic interests of Turkey. Ankara, relying on the support of the United States and NATO, takes an active part in most regional political and economic projects, actively intervenes in the affairs of the Middle East, South Caucasus, Central Asian and North African regions, tries to strengthen its role beyond their borders, which often overlaps with the national interests of Russia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Askar Battalov ◽  
Svetlana Kozhirova ◽  
Tleutai Suleimenov

The authors discuss the evolution of religious identity of Azerbaijan and the impact of Middle Eastern actors (Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey) on the process. Today, the pro-Islamic leaders of the Middle East are attempting, with the persistence that can hardly be overestimated, to move into the Southern Caucasus, one of the world’s strategically important regions. Thus, the uncompromising rivalry of religious ideologies is hardly surprising. It means that the national and religious identities of post-Soviet Azerbaijan have come to the fore in the context of Iranian-Turkic, Iranian-Arab and Shi‘a-Sunni confrontation. Today, there are enough drivers behind the already obvious awareness of their religious identity among young Azeris. The complicated search for national and religious identities in independent Azerbaijan is driven by an outburst of national and religious sentiments during the protracted Karabakh conflict and two wars with Armenia (in 1992-1994 and 2020). The process is unfolding under the huge influence of theocratic Shi‘a Iran, the closest neighbor with its twenty-five million-strong Azeri diaspora; proliferation of the puritanical Wahhabi teaching of Saudi Arabia and Salafism as its export variant throughout the Caucasus, and, last but not least, strategic rapprochement with Turkey that is moving away from nationalism towards Islamism. This has made Azerbaijan a fertile soil for a confrontation within the multipolar Islamic world, which is expanding the geography of its conflicts to the Southern Caucasus. The proxy wars in Syria and Iraq, in which the Shi‘a-Sunni confrontation is also obvious may destabilize the Caucasus in the future. Here the authors assess the impact of the Middle Eastern heavyweights—Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey— on the process of shaping the Azeri religious identity as an Islamic political factor.


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