ABSTRACT In 1945, the USSR asked Turkey for the regions of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin in order to be able to make a new alliance agreement. How and to what extent these requests, which never became formal, were made has been widely debated. This study primarily aims to shed light on these debates. Additionally, the debates in question have two dimensions that affect Turkish historiography. The first is to confirm, regardless of the conceptualizations made, that the USSR did have territorial demands from Turkey. Accordingly, the relevant ideas are shaped based on the existence of these demands. The second dimension consists of the opinions of those who claim that the existence of the demands is merely speculative. These groups generally question the existence of demands. They argue that these demands are instrumentalized by certain factions or outright reject them. Therefore, the issue of Soviet territories has never lost its significance. This study, consequently, aims to contribute to these discussions. In this study, these two views will be examined separately as a method; newspapers, Turkish state archives, memoirs of political elites and bureaucrats from the relevant countries, as well as, of course, secondary sources have also been used.

ABSTRACT The detailed observations of British Consul J. E. Blunt, encapsulated in his ‘Report on the Effects of the Russian Invasion of Roumelia’, assisted by Edmund Calvert and Frederick R. J. Calvert, constitute a primary source that captures the scale of demographic, economic, political and social changes experienced by the strategically important Kazanlak district in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Blunt and his assistants documented the population displacements, housing destruction, agricultural devastation, and widespread economic collapse triggered by the war. This article presents and integrates Consul Blunt’s original observations in 1877 with insights and analysis, contributing to a nuanced understanding of how imperial strategies were enacted into local level, producing profound demographic and social transformations. Through examining these interconnected dynamics, the study illuminates the complex relationship between military actions and their lasting impact on civilian populations, particularly in sensitive strategic zones such as the Kazanlak region.

ABSTRACT The intensifying data governance rivalry between the United States (US) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) represents a critical extension of geopolitical tensions into the digital realm, carrying profound implications for global trade and economic stability. This research analyses how data transfer restrictions, justified by national security imperatives, exacerbate the fragmentation of the global digital economy and create unprecedented compliance challenges for transnational corporations. In the absence of clear international guidelines regarding security and public policy exceptions in the digital trade context, a regulatory vacuum has emerged, enabling unilateralism and undermining multilateral cooperation. This paper illustrates the tangible consequences of confronted data governance through comparative legal analysis, empirical policy evaluation, and the TikTok Ban as a pivotal case study. The study further explores the ‘spillover effects’ on third-party regions, where nations are forced to engage in strategic hedging between competing technopolitical spheres. To address these systemic risks, the paper proposes a normative framework for governance reconstruction, operating across four integrated levels: (1) national measures regulated, (2) international normative consensus, (3) multilateral institutional innovation, and (4) private-sector technical adaptation.

ABSTRACT This article analyses the strategic priorities of the Carter administration in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Cold War, with a focus on strengthening ties with Greece and Turkey. It sheds light on how this approach affected regional dynamics and the complex relationships between the region’s key players. Through an examination of US and British archival sources, the article evaluates the influence of American foreign policy under Carter’s leadership, as well as the specific actions taken to promote US interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. It also explores the contributions of key figures within the Carter administration’s foreign policy team in shaping policies for the Eastern Mediterranean.

ABSTRACT This article analyses Turkey’s monetary policy experiment between 2018 and 2023. While central banks globally tightened monetary policy in response to rising inflation, Turkey pursued sustained interest rate cuts, expanded state-directed credit and relied on discretionary intervention in foreign exchange and financial markets. Conventional explanations centred on leadership preferences, institutional erosion or electoral opportunism cannot fully account for the persistence or timing of this unorthodox regime. Drawing on the Growth Models Perspective and critical state theory, the article argues that the experiment emerged from the exhaustion of Turkey’s credit-driven, dependent financialised growth model and the political realignments this exhaustion generated. As external vulnerabilities intensified, sectorally differentiated monetary preferences reshaped the dominant social bloc, giving rise to a coalition favouring low interest rates, credit expansion and discretionary state intervention. This coalition sustained the experiment after 2021 by stabilizing employment and economic activity despite accelerating inflation. However, the internal logic of the experiment intensified balance-of-payments pressures and led to sustained reserve depletion, rendering the regime untenable. After the 2023 elections, monetary policy was gradually recalibrated towards orthodoxy under binding external constraints. The article conceptualizes monetary policy as a coalition-mediated political instrument shaped by structural external constraints.

ABSTRACT What causes a community once praised for rescuing refugees to later reject them? This article examines Greek islanders’ shifting attitudes during the European refugee crisis, focusing on Chios. Using the concept of ‘compassion fade’ it explores how initial empathy gave way to frustration and hostility as refugee numbers grew and media narratives changed. The study identifies key factors—economic strain, lack of support, and securitization discourse—that contributed to this emotional shift. While centred on the Aegean, the findings offer broader insights into how prolonged humanitarian crises can erode compassion, with implications for global policy and crisis response.

ABSTRACT When Erdoğan declared in 2012, ‘We will raise a pious generation’, Turkey already had a national identity rooted in secularism and Turkism since the early Republic. His statement signalled an attempt to reshape identity along the AKP’s anti-Kemalist lines. This study examines shifting nation-building agendas in state-run youth and sports institutions, comparing the early Republican era with the AKP period. Early programmes emphasized Turkism, secularism, and paramilitarism, reflecting the ideological imperatives of the time. Under the AKP, however, programmes increasingly promoted Islamism and neo-Ottomanism, opposing earlier values. The study argues that AKP-era youth policies deliberately sought to replace Kemalist principles, with the Ministry of Youth and Sports serving as a channel for ideological nation-building absent in formal education.

ABSTRACT This article analyses Türkiye’s active Suez policy after 1952 by framing it within a regional context, in addition to Türkiye’s NATO membership which has been extensively documented in the existing literature. By analysing recently declassified documents of the Turkish Diplomatic Archives, the article shows that, in addition to participation in NATO, two regional developments, Egyptian-US rapprochement following the coup in Egypt and Arab-Israeli reconciliation, drove Türkiye to adopt an active role in the dispute. The article contributes to the scholarship on Turkish diplomacy by framing Türkiye’s Suez policy within a Middle Eastern regional context, with a specific focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of only situating it within global Cold War policies such as participation in defence organizations like NATO.

ABSTRACT We explore the burgeoning concept, and practical implementation, of aviation diplomacy, defined as all sorts of diplomatic processes and structures pursued within the area of civil aviation in this article. Addressing a theoretical gap concerning the diplomatic role of this industry, we analyse the dynamic relationship between Qatar and the Balkans through the operations of Qatar Airways in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Our primary research question is: How does Qatar Airways’ operationalization of aviation diplomacy influence Qatar’s strategic objectives and international relations as a soft power instrument within the Balkans? Airlines as flag carriers particularly those with government backing, function not merely as commercial entities, but as soft power instruments of state foreign policy. Employing the comprehensive tripartite framework for aviation diplomacy, we operationalize this analysis across three dimensions: aviation as a direct foreign policy tool, a catalyst for soft power and national image, and autonomous diplomatic actors through business diplomacy. We demonstrate the practical operationalization of a novel soft power instrument and underscoring the increasing importance of non-state actors in modern diplomacy.

ABSTRACT Atatürk’s influence on Asian liberation movements is well known, yet his reception in China is underexplored. How did Chinese intellectuals and the public engage with Atatürk’s example, and how did these perceptions intersect with China’s struggles for independence and reform? This study offers the first systematic, theme-driven content analysis of Chinese press coverage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish Revolution, showing how Shenbao (申报) and other newspapers actively appropriated Atatürk’s legacy to frame China’s debates on national liberation, modernization, and leadership. Focusing on 1919–1939, from Türkiye’s liberation struggle to Atatürk’s death and World War II’s onset, the study highlights a period when both nations pursued nation-building and reforms, making Türkiye’s experience resonant for Chinese discussions on sovereignty and modernization. Using qualitative content analysis of Shenbao, known as the ‘encyclopedia of modern Chinese history’, the study identifies four themes: anti-imperialist struggle and liberation, modernization and reform, international recognition, and Atatürk’s leadership and symbolic legacy. These reveal the multifaceted ways Atatürk and the Turkish Revolution were understood in Republican-era China, illustrating how Shenbao used Türkiye’s example to reflect, debate, and inspire China’s quests for independence, reform, global stature, and transformative leadership, shedding light on cross-cultural exchanges in nation-building.