By Ioanna Theou On December 28, 2025, Alawite Syrians protested in central and coastal parts of Syria after a call by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite leader living outside the country. Ghazal Ghazal warned and urged the Alawite population about the killings…
Contemporary Turkey and the Kurdish Issue
By Ioanna Theou The Kurdish people is a distinct ethnic group native to the Middle East and have aspired to self-determination for a long time. After World I, the victorious powers of the Entente (Great Britain, France, US) initially promoted the…
Turkey Boosts Military Activity at the Syrian Border
By Ioanna Theou According to the Iran Press and to Turkish media, there are Turkish military convoys that have entered northern Syria and are advancing toward the city of Manbij, using multiple routes through Afrin, Ras al Ain (Kobani) and northern…
The Present and Future of Syria
By Ioanna Theou The Assad regime collapsed in a sudden way, yet Bashar al-Assad managed to escape with his family to Moscow. With the fall of the Assad regime, the question of Syria’s future remains unsolved. The new regime has gained…
The Misak-I Milli, Davutoglu’s Strategic Doctrine and the risks for regional stability
By Ioanna Theou Turkey’s foreign policy cannot be fully understood without considering the historical and ideological frameworks that continue to shape its strategic thinking. Two of the most influential concepts are the Missak- i Milli (National Oath) and Ahmet Davutoglu’s ‘’Strategic…
The Turkish goals in the Syrian civil war and its military operations in northern Syria
By Ioanna Theou Turkey’s position in the Syrian civil war has been shaped by security concerns -due to the Kurdish presence close to the Turkish borders-, geopolitical ambitions, regional rivalries and ideological motivations. The beginning of the Syrian civil war in…
US foreign policy in Syria: Turkey, the Assad regime and the limits of American influence
By Ioanna Theou Introduction The main argument and the central research question This thesis seeks to answer to the following question; How and to what extend have peripheral actors – particularly Turkey but the Assad regime itself- shaped the US foreign…
The architecture of regime change
Written by Manolis Skoulikas Despite the bold—if arbitrary—assurances by many anti-American analysts regarding Iran’s lack of ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, the level of uranium enrichment the regime has already demonstrably achieved, makes that alternative clearly plausible. An alternative of horror…
The importance of Hannibal Gaddafi’s release from Lebanese Prison
By Ioanna Theou Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of Muammar Gaddafi -who was tragically killed with the Arab Spring events-, was released from detention in Lebanon in November. He stayed in prison almost ten years without even having a trial. Lebanese…