Mehmet Alaca is an academic researcher focusing on Iraq, regional Kurdish politics, and Shia militias in the Middle East. He is currently an Ankara-based diplomatic correspondent and a non-resident fellow at Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM). Mehmet holds an MA from the Department of Politics and International Relations of the Middle East at Exeter University in the United Kingdom. Twitter: @mehmtalaca
The ongoing power struggle between rival Shia factions turned into bloody street violence in Iraq. The deadly violence began in Baghdad’s streets right after the announcement of mercurial Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s withdrawal from politics on August 29. The announcement came shortly after Qom-based Grand Ayatollah Kazem Husseini al-Haeri announced his resignation as a marja taqlid, a top ecclesiastical authority and source of emulation in the Shia community. As a spiritual leader of the
Within 72 hours, loyalists of firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled down the walls of the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to Iraq’s government buildings and foreign embassies, twice. Moreover, they stormed into the Iraqi parliament to thwart the selection of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for prime minister by the Shiite Coordination Framework (SCF), a group of Shiite Iran-backed parties headed by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The threat of escalation
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The ongoing power struggle between rival Shia factions turned into bloody street violence in Iraq. The deadly violence began in Baghdad’s streets right after the announcement of mercurial Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s
More
Within 72 hours, loyalists of firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled down the walls of the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to Iraq’s government buildings and foreign embassies, twice. Moreover, they stormed
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The long-lived tacit row between Turkey and Iran has come to the fore again with a new occasion. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated in a special session in parliament on May
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In order to listen to the article, click on the audio clip below: A dozen ballistic missiles fired from outside Iraq hit a neighborhood near the US consulate complex in Erbil,
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Although more than four months have passed since the general elections in Iraq, the Prime Minister still has not been elected. Ahead of government formation, a president needs to be elected. Iraq’s
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After the Iran-backed Fatah Alliance lost power to a great extent in Iraq’s October 10th elections, a militia was killed on November 5, during the days-long protests of the pro-Iranian militia groups
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The casting of nine million votes out of 26 million in the Iraqi snap election, held on October 10, 2021, recorded the lowest turnout of 41 percent since the invasion. The early
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Since taking office in May 2020, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who has been trying to consolidate his relations with the United States (US), European states, Iran, and Turkey, as well as
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