Journal of Middle Eastern Research (JMER)

Constructivist Analysis of Contemporary Turkish Foreign Policy

Akam A. Ali — 2020-06-20

This article analyses Turkey’s foreign policy from 2009 to mid 2016, which had changed immensely toward its neighbours. The author argues that Turkey’s foreign policy is considered to be mostly driven by ideological perspective than the logic of nation-state. For this purpose, the author attempts to apply a constructivist approach in International Relations theories for explanation, emphasising normative structures at domestic level. This approach which is based on ideas, norms and identity can provide an answer to the question why Turkey’s foreign policy has changed. Hence, this article highlights the determinant factors.

Kurdish Nationalism and the State: The case of Kurdish State in the Mahabad Republic

Azad Haji Aghaie — 2020-06-20

As a historical fact, in the political systems of the 20 century, the actors in the international community always have been the states. The fact is so powerful that one cannot walk out of the world of nation-states. But in the meantime, the states as the representation of nations brought out war, peace, and by the name of nations have consolidated domination and authority of a class or an ideology. On the one hand, state as a utopia, is the driving force behind the emancipation of none-state nations, and on the other hand, the state represents a kind of domination and totalitarianism. For the Kurds, of course, the state also existed as a desire and utopia in the ideology of Kurdish nationalism. And this desire has adopted by different rhetorics and articulated by very different ideologies. In this term, for the Kurds, state as a manifestation of domination and totalitarianism in the form of ruling states, as well as emancipatory ideology has shown her Janus’s face. Despite the fact that the concept of Kurdish nationalism was still a controversial and hence, other concepts used in Kurdish nationalism can also be contested and discussed, considering all these problems, this essay attempts to analyze the relationship between nationalism and state in the rhetoric of Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. In doing so, by considering two important newspaper published in the dawn of attendance theory and practice in Rojhelat (East Kurdistan), this essay tries to analyze the links between nationalism and the state.

Religion and Political Culture in Eastern Kurdistan

Sabah Mofidi — 2020-06-17

This article is going to study how religion affects the political culture in East Kurdistan. For this purpose, the theory of Almond and Verba among the relevant theories is used. On this basis, the situation of political culture in Kurdistan and the impact of religion are explained. By studying the socio-political functions of religion and religious government in Iran and the ways in which they affect the political behavior of people in the political process, the article tries to clarify the role of religion in the genesis of a special type of political culture in East Kurdistan. It shows that religion as a part of social culture, on the one side, and religious government, on the other side, have prevented the formation of a participant and civic culture in Kurdistan. Therefore, in comparison with the ideal types of Almond and Verba, a subject-dominated political culture has been created because of the politico-religious obstacles, though there is a potential in Kurdish society to go towards a civic culture.

Sociological Study of Suicide Attempt of Kurdish Women in Kurdistan Province

Helale Ghafouri — 2020-06-20

Suicide is estimated as a serious problem among women. The purpose of this study is to understand the circumstances, interactions and outcomes related to women's unsuccessful suicide in Kurdistan province (Iran) using grounded theory. With the help of theoretical and purposeful sampling 31 participants were interviewed in order to gather theoretical saturation. Finally, the data in the form of 642 concepts, 23 sub-categories, seven main categories and a core part were coded and analyzed. Interview results show problems with the factors of social exclusion: Poverty, family problems, lack of legal protection, social deviations, part-time work and the lack of affection were predisposing conditions to women suicide. As well as traditional culture, with subcategories: the stigma of divorce, intolerance with modern trends, breaking down the norms, Anomie, and inadequate economic and cultural capital, with subcategories: the lack of financial independence, lack of awareness and illiteracy, and patriarchal society, with subcategories: male domination and violence against women were identified as the causal conditions. The following categories of mental disorders with depression and personality disorders have acted as intervening conditions. Participants have mentioned seeking liberty, silence and threats as strategies against conditions. Social isolation, with sub-categories of loneliness, insecurity and losing life expectancy, were estimated as the consequences of suicidal thought.

Editorial

JMER Team — 2020-06-20

The main problem with the so-called Middle East studies is the weakness of its theoretical dimension. Needless to mention, theory plays a major role in enriching every field of humanities. But in spite of its long history, in the Middle East studies, theory has been applied irregularly and arbitrarily. Most of authors deal with the Middle East in a descriptive way and regard it as a particular region which is not rational and predictable. This phenomenon, on the one hand, has culminated in the illusion of being particular. While every field of study has to connect with ‘the universal’ in order to produce accumulating knowledge, and theory is the most significant means for connecting to the universal. On the other hand, considering the Middle East as a particular region has resulted in many misuses and violations, including the violation of human rights, because when you are treating a region as a particular one which is quite different from other regions of the world and it does not obey universal rules, you are going to justify the status quo of inhumane conditions. It is obvious that the violators claim that their realm is a particular which is not understandable by universal theories.

Obviously the Middle Eastern issues are not essentially different from other parts of the world. Therefore, theory as a universal tool for analyzing problems is necessary for this purpose. But applying theories on a subject does not mean to ‘find’ appropriate theories for describing some phenomena but it means to look at the phenomena from a theoretical point of view. In this manner, the researcher is not looking for a suitable theory that can explain the topic of research, but they already have theoretical concerns and have chosen a philosophical-theoretical stance. By this intellectual strategy, the researcher is a thinker who studies a topic, not a neutral human being who acts like a robot according to some formula.

In this direction, our journal tries to collect and publish those researches which are rich in terms of theory. Fortunately, we have managed to collect and present several strong articles which have applied theoretical frameworks on their topics in order to present a deeper reflection. Akam Ahmad examines the Turkish foreign policy as one of the most controversial topics of the Middle East in recent years from a constructivist point of view. Through this, the author tries to look at the subject from a new angle so that it can be meaningful and understandable. In the second article, Azad Haji Aghaie attempts to analyze the relationship between nationalism and state in the rhetoric of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. In his article, Sabah Mofidi is going to study how religion affects the political culture in East Kurdistan. For this purpose, the theory of Almond and Verba has been used. In her detailed article, Helale Ghafouri has focused on the topic of Kurdish women’s suicide from a grounded theory point of view. This is the first study about Kurdish women’s suicide from a theoretical perspective.

We know that these attempts should be accumulated for several decades so that we can talk about producing theoretical approaches to the Middle East issues but we hope that these theoretical attempts can open new horizons in political and social analysis of the Middle East.

Front Matter

JMER Team — 2020-06-20

Journal of Middle Eastern Research

(JMER)

Published under the auspices of The Kurdistan Center for Middle Eastern Research (Soran University), and The International Institute for Study of Kurdish Societies (IISKS)

The Journal of Middle Eastern Research (JMER) PRINT-ISSN 2509-9221, is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that will be published jointly by the Kurdistan Center for Middle Eastern Research (KCMER) at Soran University and the International Institute for the Study of Kurdish Societies (IISKS), Goettingen-Germany. JMER attempts to fill a gap between the academic studies on middle eastern societies and the Kurdish studies affiliated journals. The journal aims to publish articles, review articles and book reviews on Kurdistan and its surrounding countries from a wider range of disciplinary fields including, but not limited to History, Politics, Political Thought, International Relations, Political Economy, Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Kurdish Studies, Social Movements, Media and Communication, Gender Studies.