Congrès Mondial des Études sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord

Barcelone du 19 au 24 Juillet 2010

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: Chair: Francesc Serra (Associate professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Paper Presenter: George Sanikidze (Director - Professor, Institute for Oriental Studies, Tbilisi State University), “Iran, Turkey and the South Caucasus: Challenges for Regional Policy after 2008 August War”
In the presentation is explored Iranian and Turkish perceptions of the changes taking place across countrys northern and north-eastern borders, is traced historical background and the development of relations with the three Transcaucasian states of the former Soviet South. On the basis of today's political realities in the South Caucasus, considerable attention is also given to the examination of Iranian and Turkish perception of the conflicts (first of all August 2008 war) in the South Caucasus and of the role of main foreign actors in the region - the USA, Russia and EU. Among the reasons underlying Iran's and Turkey's relations with South Caucasian countries it must be cited: distribution of the Caspian oil fields (for Iran) and pipeline strategy (the construction of pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, promoted first of all by Turkey, doesn't correspond to the Iranian economic interests and diminishes the importance of Iran as of the transit territory for Caspian oil and gas); the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; Sunni-Shi'a relations and activities of Turkish and Iranian religious organizations in Azerbaijan and among the Azeri population of Georgia; Different perception of the role of the US and Russia (on the example of Georgia Iran opposes the enlargement of US and NATO in the Region and supports Russian interests; Turkey as a member of NATO has different position); ideological incompatibility of the regimes. The main attention in the presentation is given to the Georgian-Russian August 2008 war. Generally speaking, the Georgia August crisis became the part of a broader and emergent geopolitical confrontation. First of all, it must be stressed that Iran practically didn't express well-defined position concerning this war but its position in general is based on the close alliance with Russia and Russian-centric aspects of Iranian foreign policy in Caucasus and Central Asia Turkey's position is quit different and Turkey is much more active in the Region. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is known to have proposed the idea of creating an organization of security and cooperation in the Caucasus that should include Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Russia in order to create 'a platform of stability and security in the Caucasus.' Iran, however, is not among these countries, and this has riled Teheran.

Paper Presenter: Masoud Bayat (Assistant Professor, Urmia University), “Geopolitical Role of Caucasian Mountains in Determining Identity Border in the North West of Iran”
Although scientific study of the influence of the geography on the policy is not that much old, exploitation of natural phenomenon for political aims is as old as humans'' social life. By formation of social units called country in the world and the threat of this part for these units, politicians were forced to join their frontiers - which were meaningless without that country? to the natural phenomenon which had a suitable preventing role to protect their national security, with less expenses, as much as possible, therefore, one of the chains of the connection between geography and politics was found for the politicians. By formation of the big government in Iran from Median era thereafter, and with the advantage of Iran being situated in the land (dryness) of the great Caucasian Mountains of about 1200 kilometres length in the northwest, it was an appropriate option for the Iranian governments to choose the natural frontier. This study aims to answer these questions:
1. What political situation do Caucasian Mountains have during history?
2. What is the portion of the limitation of the frontiers of Iran to Caucasian Mountains during a long time and formation of its historical identity in the south? In the present study, it was tried to utilize a historical method to answer the proposed questions. According to the obtained results, it was clear that the presence of Iran frontiers during a long time in Caucasian Mountains caused Iranian identity to be formed in southern areas.

Paper Presenter: Dr. Gozalova Nigar (Senior Scientific Worker, Institute of History, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences), “Aqa Muhammad Shah Qajar Campaigns' to Transcaucasia in the End of 18th Century”
The control of Transcaucasia, located on the crossroads of East and West, throughout its long history, was deemed indispensable by two surrounding empires, Iran and Russia. In the beginning of the early 18th century, Russia slowly asserted its political domination over Transcaucasia, while Iran had strived to maintain its position in the region. The local rulers asserted their independence, when finished the Safavid mastery (1732), also after the assassination of Nadir Shah Afshar (1747) and the end of Afsharid control in this region in the middle of the 18th century. The individual Khanates (principality) were ruled by Khans, who were tribal leaders which emerged in the middle of the 18th century. Transcaucasia could be subdivided into two broad zones in that time: Georgia (Kartli and Kakhetia) and Azerbaijan (Shirvan, Garabakh, Ganja, Irevan, Quba, Sheki, Baku, Nakhchivan and Lenkoran). The Qajarids in Iran came out from a near century of civil war and disunity; furthermore, they transferred itself from a tribal style to a dynastic identity in this period. Iran’s unification at the end of the 18th century under the Qajar dynasty coincided with an aggressive Russian ambition to Transcaucasia. According to many authors, Aqa Mohammad Khan’s desire to establish its authority in the South of Caucasus, as well as his seizure to other regions of Iran, was a natural act. But keep in mind that it was natural striving for independence of local khanates, and Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar should consider these new realities in the region. The Qajar’s policy during his campaigns (1795, 1797) in Transcaucasus was fully pushed local rulers, when some khanates made a fateful decision to ask for Russian help. Russians controlled Georgia, by the Georgievsk treaty (1783), which also weakened the Qajarids position in Iran, by this time and during the Russian-Iranian wars in the early 19th century. This paper relies on the official Qajar historiography, local sources (as datum of Georgia and Azerbaijani contemporary history), as well as the contemporary history of Russia and new western researches, investigated the purposes and effects of Aqa Muhammad Shah’s campaigns on the domestic and foreign policy situation of the region.

Paper Presenter:Agustí Alemany (Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), "The Caucasus as a Border between Eurasian Steppe Nomads and Near Eastern Empires: an Approach to the Pre-Islamic Period"
From the first Cimmerian and Scythian inroads against Transcaucasia down to the spread of Islam, both Western (Greek, Latin) and Middle Eastern (Neo-Assyrian, Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic) sources refer to the Caucasus as a geostrategic region between the nomadic populations of the Eurasian steppes and the sedentary civilizations of the Near East. Since olden times, the territories of present-day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan underwent successive invasions by various peoples of presumed Iranian (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) and Turco-Mongolian (Huns, Oghurs, Türküt, Khazars) descent. A special mention deserve the policies carried out by southern empires in order to prevent nomads from crossing the mountains or to make use of them as short term allies against occasional enemies. Beginning with the period of Romano-Parthian Cold War in the first century A.D., a series of episodes scattered throughout the sources provide evidence on the history of the main military roads running across the Caucasus: Darial, ‘the Gate of the Alans’, and Darband, ‘the Closed Gates’. The important role they played in the frequent clashes between north and south finally led to the erection of massive fortifications in Eastern Transcaucasia under the Sasanians, who appointed local rulers to protect the marches. Later, after the stalemate of the Arab-Khazar wars, the Caucasus was to become one of the Northern boundaries of the Muslim world until the Mongol conquests and the Islamization of the Golden Horde. The purpose of this paper will be to trace the milestones of the history of the Caucasian border in the Pre-Islamic period as seen through the reports in Western and Eastern literary sources.

Paper Presenter: Oktay F. Tanrisever (Associate Professor - Dr., Middle East Technical University) “Nagorno-Karabagh Conflict and its Impact on Regional Stability in the Caspian Sea Region”
The network of relations among Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran constitute the regional security complex in the Caspian Sea region. The Nagorno-Karabagh conflict has played a critical role not in Azerbaijan’s relations with Armenia, but also in the evolution of the regional security complex in the Caspian basin due to its role in linking the geopolitical and energy dimensions of the regional security complex together very closely. The paper argues that the regional stability has been undermined by Moscow’s use of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict as a frozen one. The paper describes the political and economic challenges facing the regional leaders and their responses to these challenges. The article concludes by evaluating performance of Russia in controlling the regional states between 2001 and 2009.
Methodology: The theoretical approach of this conference paper is based on the regional security complex theory, developed first by Professor Barry Buzan from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Contrary to the state-centric approaches to international security which focuses on state capabilities and actions, the regional security complex theory takes the region as a unit of analysis and focuses on interdependencies of enmity and amity among the security actors in a given region. This regional perspective enables one to develop an objective, unbiased and balanced approach to international conflicts identifying solutions in regional cooperation rather than rivalry. Methodologically, the paper substantiates the its core argument based on the findings of three fieldwork studies in Azerbaijan between 2007-2009. In addition to the interviews with important personalities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, political parties, civil society organizations, think tanks and universities, the paper will also use other primary sources, such as legal documents, foreign ministry declarations and statistics especially on energy issues. The paper is organized as follows: The conference paper starts with an examination of the energy and security policies of the countries that are part of the regional security complex in the Caspian basin which influence the developments in the Middle East considerably. Afterwards, it will discuss the characteristics of this regional security complex in shaping the security and energy issues at the regional level. In the penultimate part, the paper will examine the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict in terms of its relevance to the regional energy security. The concluding part will discuss the potential for regional stability and cooperation in the Caspian Sea basin.

Paper Presenter: Nani Gelovani (Associate Professor, Tbilisi State University, Institute of Oriental Studies), “Woman in Georgia: Islamic Tradition and Transition”
Islam appeared in Adjara (Georgia's autonomous province) between 1510 and the beginning of the seventeenth century when the Ottoman Empire started to expand in the Caucasus. The supremacy of Ottomans continued for 3 years. In 1878, as a result of Russian-Turkish war, Adjara was reunited back to mother-Georgia. As a result of spreading of Islam in Adjara, the Islam traditions were introduced to the local life and an Adjarian woman’s status in a family life changed totally. Muslim rules and habits, so much unfamiliar to the Georgian reality, were spread all over the territory. The phenomena of polygamy, marriage between the blood relations and among the underage, obligation of wearing a yashmak (veil), prohibition of marriage between foster brothers and sisters, a form of divorce effected by pronouncing the special formula talak, father's right to his children after divorce, tradition of ritual stoning as a punishment for furnication, prohibiting a woman to loudly mourn over her dead husband or child or take part in a funeral procession and other similar traditions in Adjara should be explained by the spread of Islamic religion. Islam also helped the conservation of old Georgian traditions and customs and habits. The present work consists of three thematic parts. The first part analyzes the national culture which was quite depressed during the Ottoman reign in Adjara; It is true that the woman was isolated from the social life and concluded to the family life, but in return, she had extensive possibilities to protect the sanctity of the Georgian language in her family. It is due to the women's merit that archaic Georgian expressions and names of domestic things have been survived in Adjara. Georgian Muslim women in Adjara also preserved the elements of the ancient national Georgian dresses. The second part investigates the Islamic traditions (marriage, divorce and etc.) in Georgia. The third part analyzes the period after 1917 revolution. The law about the equality of men and women was adopted officially and old Islamic customs and habits were declared invalid. The above mentioned information is analyzed on the basis of ethnographic and historic sources, also Georgian periodical press and scientific literature.