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The term "niyaz", which means "wish", "orison" and "prayer" in Turkish folk beliefs, appears in Turkish Sufism as a Sufi stage or aspect and a practice of visiting and greeting, done in this aspect. At first glance, it seems that the concept of "niyaz" has similar uses within the Alevi belief system, too. However, our findings and researches, based on our fieldwork done among communities connected with the hearths in Iran, Turkey and the Balkans, along with information in existing literature on the topic, have shown that this concept has a very broad meaning and use within the Alevi belief system. In this scope, our paper discusses the semantic world of the concept of "niyaz" in Alevi belief and the rituals performed in this context. This discussion is based on written sources, such as "buyruk" (decree) accepted as sacred, "conk" (collected works), book of rules, and on information obtained from the oral tradition, mostly during our fieldwork, together with poetry texts of the Alevi poets and ashiks. In accordance with the evaluations made via the information obtained, the paper includes evaluations and analysis about the conceptual framework and meaning of the concept of "niyaz" within the esoteric structure of the Alevi belief system, its transformation into ritual-centred performance, its new meaning in the ritual and its functional dimension arose in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic data are the most source to make inferences about the culture, history, lifestyle and national identity of a society. Based on these linguistic data, it is known that the Old Turks had a nomadic lifestyle and thus a nomadic culture. Animals carry great importance for nomadic cultures. Albeit the Old Turks' adaptation of a settled life in the following centuries, animals continued to have an important place in their lives, similar to those in nomadic cultures. The Qashqai people part of the Oghuz Turkish branch, either led a semi-nomadic life in the South of Iran, around the Zagros Mountains, or settled down following some reforms in Iran. The main occupations of the Qashqais are animal husbandry and agriculture. Therefore, a close look at their vocabulary established that there are many words related to animals and husbandry. Based on field work, we compiled a database of these words. This paper provides information about the Qashqai Turk and then examines the nomenclature of words related to animals and husbandry used by the nomadic Qashqai Turks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the Sorush newspaper published in Istanbul as a case of Iranian journalism in exile, this paper seeks to shed light on one aspect of Persian journalism in the constitutional period. On the eve of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution, Persian journalism entered into a critical phase that flourished outside the country. Istanbul, Calcutta, Cairo and London were the centres where Iranian intellectuals developed their critical ideas through this modern media. Inspired by these ideas, the Constitutional Revolution prepared an unprecedented situation for Iranian journalists to develop their flourishing career inside the country. It was in this period that a distinguished constitutionalist and intellectual Ali Akbar Dehkhoda began his journalistic career. Together with Mirza Jahangir Khan Shirazi, he began to publish Sur-e Esrafil, which presented a straightforwardly critical voice against Qajar despotism. Yet the passing flame of political freedom died out by the restoration of despotism and forced Dehkhoda and some of his colleagues to leave their homeland. He first went to Switzerland and then to Istanbul, where he continued his career in exile and published a new Persian-language newspaper by the name of Sorush. An analysis of this short-lived newspaper allows us to identify three pivotal concerns in its pages: advocacy of constitutionalism, opposition to imperialism and defending Iran's independence and territorial integrity, and the last but not the least, reflecting on Iran's first experience in constitutionalism. Indeed, for Dehkhoda and his colleagues in Sorush of İstanbul, securing an independent and well-integrated Iran was the most critical issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Young Turks assumed power in Istanbul, Iranians who had fled the bombardment of the Iranian Majles found the capital of the Ottoman Empire an opportune space for resistance. This article examines the revolutionary discourse that evolved in Istanbul during the Lesser Despotism (Estebdad-e Saghir) in 1908 and 1909. By delving into the Anjoman- e Sa'adat, Anjoman-e Baradaran-e Irani and the Komiteh-ye Nesvan-e Irani-ye Moqimin-e Istanbul, alongside the Persian press, i.e. Shams [Istanbul] and Soroush [Istanbul], I argue that the political center that Iranians formed in Istanbul defined the discourse and the ultimate vision of the constitutionalists in Iran.This paper demonstrates how Istanbul became a major political center during Iran's constitutional revolution and how it paved the way for the restoration of the constitutional rule, the abdication of Mohammad Ali Shah, and the establishment of the second Majles in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hasan Onat gave lectures on the history of Islamic sects and contemporary Islamic movements. He also wrote books, articles and presented papers on these subjects. As a public intellectual his activities ranged from making TV shows and radio talks and writing columns in newspapers. Hasan Onat deals with the history of current religious understanding in Turkey by linking it with the last period of the Ottoman Empire. According to him, in the first period of the Republic, intellectuals disassociated themselves from religion. The gap raised from that in the field of religion has been filled by Sufi orders and religious communities. Consequently, the tradition was perceived as the religion itself. Books written in colonial countries were translated and the language of religious studies in Turkey became politicized. For instance, the Salafi-Shiite polarization raises from the political rivalry of Shiite Iran and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, after the Iranian revolution, the books of the Shiite ideologues of the revolution were translated into Turkish, and the dissolution of the traditional Sunni understanding in Turkey accelerated. Salafism is not a sect but a mentality. Onat emphasized the importance of the reason. He promoted a Qur'an-centered and research-based understanding of religion. According to him, the enormous baggage of tradition should be evaluated by subjecting it to a vigorous criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran's investments in the cyberspace as of the beginning of the twenty-first century caused a re-evaluation of the country's perception of its capabilities in cyber space. The reasons for this evaluation are; not only the cyber space activities attributed to Iran, but also discourse of the country's administration about investments in the cyber space have been effective. Iran's previous experience in developing cyber space skills is important. These experiences have had an impact on the The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which is considered a new era for US-Iran Relations. With the initiation of the JCPOA process, which was aimed to be gain a mutual trust between the P5 + 1 countries and the Iranian administration, has begun, but the main actors of this process USA and Iran has not been sufficient neither bilateral nor regional approaches and policies. The progressive process has shown that the threat perception growing between the two countries is not limited only to its dimensions in the physical world. In the study firstly, the history of the relations between the two countries is briefly mentioned and the perspectives related to the geopolitical issues of the parties are discussed in the process leading to the signing of the JCPOA agreement. The study then focuses on the perceived threat perception as a result of the lack of convergence situation between the US and Iran on bilateral and regional approaches and policies. The study examines, as a result of this threat perception, the defense and offensive cyber space strategy of Iran. In this paper, first of all, findings regarding the capabilities of the Iranian administration in the cyber space will be revealed. Then, it will be examined how Iran put these capabilities into action during the JCPOA process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the frames in which the Arab - Israeli normalization is presented to the public in the Middle Eastern press. The main purpose of the study is to determine the similarities and differences of the regional powers framing methods of the normalization attempt, and to discover if there is a casual relationship between framing methods and the countries foreign policies. In this direction, the study adopts the "framing" approach as the conceptual basis. For this research, data collection technique and discourse analysis were chosen as qualitative methods in order to analyze the data. The scope of the research consists of news from the media of four regional powers; Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt from August 13, 2020, the day when the joint declaration was signed, to September 15, 2020, the day when the Abraham Accords were signed. The main argument of the study is that the Arab-Israeli normalization is presented in the Middle Eastern media in a reconstructed way, and the regional powers foreign policy determines the way in which the news are framed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turks, within the historical process, have been affected by the religions they encountered in the wide geography. Various religions such as Buddhism, Manichaeism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam have influenced religious lives of Turks. However, Turks protected their traditional believes, consuetudo in new cultural environment to a certain extent and these values were overlapped by the new belief system. With this respect, some of the effects and trails of traditional Turkish beliefs continued to survive within the culture of Turkish groups, which embraced the mentioned religions. Following combination with any application of the embraced religion, while subject beliefs survive within the view of the subject religion, sometimes it continues its existence in new religious and cultural environment in its authentic form. This study explores the roots and present manifestations and traces of traditional Turkish beliefs among Turks of Iran who for centuries have accepted different religious views of Shiism, Sunnism and Alevism. Along with an examination of related books and papers, a field research in Meshkin Shahr of Erdebil province is done in order to determine the continuing Turkish beliefs and practices in this area. Whenever needed, references are given to beliefs and practices in other Turkish provinces and regions of Iran. In this context, transitional period beliefs and practices are taken under consideration. Hence, Turks of Iran in general, Turks living in Meshkin Shahr in particular are studied regarding their beliefs and practices of birth, after birth, marriage and death, and also nature based beliefs such as cults of sky, earth-water. Then, the ancestor cult is considered in its relation to sacrificial rituals. Finally, newyear ceremonies and related traditions are dealt with and effort is given to understand the effect of political and social changes on ancient traditions through a comparative investigation of contacts with other Turks or other peoples living in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qashqai Turks are a Turkish nomadic community living in the south of Iran. They come third in terms of population in the Turkish communities living in Iran after Azerbaijani Turks and Turkmens. They have been abandoning the nomadic life in the last thirty years. Data collection in the Qashqai field was carried out for almost two months in line with the topic of the paper, which provided data regarding the Qashqai culture and the modern Qashqai Literature.This paper, which deals with the periods of Qashqai literature from the beginning to date and the important Qashqai poets, provides information on the Qashqai poets recorded from the 19th century . It especially deals with the importance of the great poet whose pseudonym was Ma'zun for the Qashqai society, the impact of Şehriyar on Qashqai poetry after Ma’zun and examples of poems by the modern Qashqai poets. Furthemore, this paper, which aims to some degree to outline the thematic framework of the modern Qashqai poetry, provides the readers with the sample texts and the characteristics of the poems by the most famous poets in Qashqai society such as Hüseyin Ali Kaimi, Mensur Şah Muhammedi and Mahmud Kaviyani. Moreover, this study deals with the difficulties that one might encounter, the living Qashqai poets, the relationship of the new generation that started to live in cities with the Qashqai language within the framework of the data collected and observations done in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saffarid State (861-1003), dominated in the S istan State in the East Iran is a Muslim dynasty. The dynasty's founder is Ya'kûb b. Leys al-Saffar (d.265/879). The second most important figure of this dynasty is Amr b. Layt (d.289/902). In course of time, the dynasty expanded its territories to Gaznah, Gardiz and Kab al Bami-yan. Saffarids fight in this land against Tahirids and put an end to their authority there (259/873). Saffarids fighting there against Samanids as well, established a royalty system allowing authority to pass from father to son. The military and administrative organization of this dynasty is in harmony with the ones adopted by early Muslim states'. This type of organization affected directly the religious attitudes and beliefs as well. In this paper, Saffarid state's military and civil administration in Khorasan territory in a specific period of history will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding the fomenting global recession of the date, the world still experiences a shortage of energy supply. The energy prices, as result of this supply failure, chronically stands at their pre-crisis level. It is even more alarming in case of a quick global economy recovery, which, whenever occurs, will further expand already excessive oil/gas demands. All these developments are harbinger of an upcoming energy crisis. Under such bleak scenario, even new energy field discoveries will likely no longer function as a cushion. To ensure, the highest possible, efficient development of the remaining untapped energy reservoirs, such as those abundant in Iran, and their uninterrupted export to the world energy markets may not remove the entirety of the problem. But, still, it could still help smoother the transition from the present oil-based economy to a whole new one based on nuclear energy, or else. However, Iran is inflicted upon a cluster of severe (energy) sanction for its alleged nuclear-power program. Against this backdrop, this paper argues that the nuclear crisis will have three main implications on net energy importer Turkey pursuing civilian nuclear program: diversifying energy suppliers, economic costs, and establishment of international nuclear fuel bank oligopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey signed two significant energy agreements at the end of 2011. As a consequence, these accords set off a new competition for natural gas-centered energy projects around Turkey. Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Iran and the EU are the main actors of this competition. This paper aims to assess all the related and ensuing developments around Turkey through the lenses of Turkey's role in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Khayrunnisa Begum was one of the prominent figures in Iranian campaign which occurred under the command of Sultan Murad III in 1578 and the assassination of Adil Giray, the prince of Tatars, by Safavids. Malika Begum who was one of the most powerful and famous women in the history of Safavid Persia. Her husband, Muhammed Khudabende came to throne and she became powerful in government of the state and after that she was called "Makhdi Ulya" the "Owner of High Throne". In fact, Malika managed the Safavid State one year and a half. Besides she appeared in battle fields joining Azerbaijan campaign. Shah and high state officials are impressed by her courage, and self confidence and after a while she begun to control them. In short time an opposition group formed against her because of Melike's ambition, passion of the ruling and vindictive personality. Some of Amirs who didn't accept taken from their hands Safavid administration, reported firstly complains about Malika to Shah Khudabende. Despite all warning, Malika didn't retreat to harem and adversary Amirs began to rebellion. In this paper, information about Malika's short period sovereignty, conflicts between her and the officials of the state and her assassination will be given and discussion will be hold on the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]