Turkey

​This new FAIR case brief by Zenonas Tziarras focuses on how the Astana process became central to the peace efforts regarding the Syria conflict after 2017, but it has been heavily influenced by the interests and positions of its three sponsors or guarantor powers: Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

​In the MidEast Policy Brief 'Irresolvable Dilemmas? The Prospects for Repatriation for Syrian Refugees', Research Professor Kristian Berg Harpviken and Research Assistant Bjørn Schirmer-Nilsen address the challenges for Syrian refugees in major host countries, the refugees' eroding opportunities for onward migration, and their prospects for repatriation.

​Recent discovery of hydrocarbon has exacerbated existing geopolitical tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. In an episode of PRIO's Peace in a Pod, PRIO Cyprus Centre Researcher Zenonas Tziarras gives an overview of the Eastern Mediterranean, laying out its key players and its recent history, and sheds light on why hydrocarbons are consequential for a region that includes several Middle Eastern countries.

​In a recent article entitled "Energy and Sovereignty in the new Geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean" published in the Oxford Energy Forum, PRIO Cyprus Centre researcher Zenonas Tziarras asks how much of the recent crises can really be attributed to hydrocarbons, given other underlying issues and a history of regional tensions. He argues that hydrocarbons can only have a positive impact on eastern Mediterranean dynamics if the regional states (first) manage to resolve their fundamental and sometime decades-old differences.

​"Turkey’s adventures abroad are about more than hydrocarbons. They’re a bold and expensive attempt at geopolitical revisionism," writes Zenonas Tziarras and Jalel Harchaoui in an Argument article in Foreign Policy. Read the article here

​In May, a new PRIO Middle East Centre project started. The project, entitled 'Reacting to COVID-19 Across the MENA region', aims to explore how Middle East states reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and what these varied reactions say about the regimes in question, combining statistical analysis of regional patterns with five case studies: Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Palestine. The case studies are published in the MidEast Policy Brief series, with an accompanying PRIO Paper presenting the statistical analysis.

​In the new PRIO Paper ‘The Shifting Turkish Agenda in Syria’s Evolving Conflict: Understanding the Drivers of Turkey’s Policy in Syria’, Pinar Tank critically examines the Turkish agenda in Syria, identifying Turkey’s domestic drivers and situating the country’s policies within an ever-changing regional and international context. The focus is particularly on how internal dynamics and nationalist politics are driving Turkish foreign policy in Syria. These domestic factors influence both Turkey’s relationship to the West and its more recent pivot towards Russia. 

Full​ article here ​

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