Cappadocia Journal of Area Studies

Women’s Rights in Post-U.S. Afghanistan: Assessing the Impact of the Taliban's Return on Gender Equality

Ramez Shuja — 2025-06-30

This research explores the regression of women's rights and gender equality in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. Grounded in feminist and postcolonial theory, this research examines Taliban-imposed restrictions on education, employment, healthcare access, and women's socio-political participation. Drawing from qualitative interviews with Afghan women in diaspora and analysis of international and local reports, the study highlights the ideological underpinnings of Taliban policies, the psychological and economic toll on women, and the emergence of resistance through grassroots and digital activism. It also compares the current Taliban regime with its earlier rule (1996–2001) to assess continuity and transformation in gender policies. The paper argues for localized, culturally grounded advocacy strategies and stronger international support to counter gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

Russian Energy Policy in the Putin Era: Reflections on Disagreement and Conflict Processes

Seda Sevinç Cilasun — 2025-06-30

Under Putin's leadership, Russia has initiated the transformation of energy management into a state-controlled monopoly, while concurrently endeavoring to implement energy strategies. Furthermore, it has emerged as an energy actor that utilizes energy powerfully in determining the fundamental dynamics of its foreign policy. This is achieved by leveraging global and regional dispute/conflict processes within the geopolitical domain where it exerts influence. In this context, Russia has exhibited a wide range of foreign policy behaviors, ranging from disputes to war, in order to expand its sphere of action regionally in pursuit of its national interests and to ensure the control of energy resources and transfer. This study, which was prepared to investigate this framework, first outlines the energy profile that determines Russia's status as an energy actor today. The subsequent discussion will focus on the policies and strategies employed during the Putin administration that have effectively integrated energy as a pivotal component of Russia's foreign policy. The final section of the study analyzes how Russian energy policy in the Putin era has been utilized as the most significant component of the nation's foreign policy, using examples of disputes and conflicts in which energy has emerged as a cause-and-effect tool.

1830-1918: An Economic Analysis of the Opium Trade in Asia

Emre Altınışık — 2025-06-30

This study examines the opium trade between the British Empire and the Chinese Empire between 1830 and 1918, focusing on historical events and trade dynamics. Opium, obtained from the poppy plant, has been used as both medicine and a narcotic for centuries. The study shows how opium became an important trade commodity, especially through the British East India Company, which monopolized production in India and expanded its distribution to China. The increase in opium consumption in China led to government repression; the first repression occurred in 1799 when imports were banned. Despite this, the British continued to trade through independent traders in the hope of protecting their commercial interests. This conflict culminated in the Opium War, in which the Chinese government tried to resist British pressure but was eventually defeated. As a result of the agreements made, China was forced to legalize opium imports and grant trade privileges to the British, thus consolidating British influence in the region.When statistical data obtained from British and Chinese trade records were examined, it was revealed that the war and the ban did not significantly reduce the opium trade. On the contrary, the data suggest that the trade continued to grow even in a period of legal restrictions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, awareness of opium addiction in both the East and the West led to efforts worldwide to regulate and eventually eliminate trade. Meanwhile, the emergence of heroin, initially seen as a safer alternative, led to increased demand for opium-derived products. This study concludes that opium trade was not only an economic phenomenon, but also a significant factor in the shaping of international trade policies and colonial conflicts, with long-term implications for international drug regulation.

On the Classification of Political Regimes: Theoretical Foundations and Current Reflections

Onur Çelik — 2025-06-30

The aim of the study is to classify contemporary political regimes analytically, and in particular, the theoretical and practical differences between totalitarian, authoritarian and democratic regimes are comparatively addressed. The definition of regime types here is not limited to theoretical conceptualizations, but the dynamic nature of regimes is highlighted by including historical, social and cultural relations. Totalitarian regimes establish absolute domination over society with ideological uniformity, intense political mobilization and centralized controls, while authoritarian regimes present a different oppressive structure with a more limited pragmatic management approach. Democratic regimes, on the other hand, are evaluated in terms of elements such as the rule of law, freedom of elections and the guarantee of fundamental rights. Hybrid regime practices such as competitive authoritarianism, abusive constitutionalism and the rise of populist leadership are examined and shed light on today's crisis of democracy. Ultimately, it has been determined that regimes are not static structures and that the interaction of historical context and social actors can transform.

Ideological Quest in Nationalist China: Kemalism and the “New Life Movement

Can Ulusoy — 2025-06-30

In this study, firstly, the culture policies implemented by Chiang Kai-Shek who the leader of the authoritarian-nationalist single-party government in the Republic of China, under the name of "New Life Movement" were examined. Seeking a new path for China in which outside the existing political systems in the Western world, Chiang examined Kemalism and the Republican People's Party (RPP) as examples and drew attention to the connections between his own ideas and Kemalism. The administrators of these republican regimes sought modernization formulas that were suitable for their own historical conditions, and the Chinese leadership saw Kemalism as the ideology closest to themselves. The interest of the Guomingdang (GMD) to the RPP inclueded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in the person of Mao Zedong, into the discussion of Kemal Atatürk and Kemalism.

In this article, Chiang Kai-shek's political-cultural manner and writings on the citizen project are examined together with the objections of Mao, accompanied by the visits of the representatives of the Republic of China to Turkey and the "Turkey and RPP instructions" conveyed to them by the GMD center, and discussed in comparison with RPP policies in Atatürk's period.

Introduction

Halil Burak Sakal — 2025-06-30

The June 2025 issue of our journal brings together our valued readers with five different articles. This issue contains a total of five research articles.

The first research article, written by Ramez Shuja, addresses the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan after the US. The article, which investigates the effects of the Taliban administration's return to gender equality, also sheds light on a current issue with its analysis based on the years 2021-2025.

The author of the study titled Russian Energy Policy in the Putin Period: Reflections on Disagreement and Conflict Processes is Seda Sevinç Cilasun. In this research article, produced from the doctoral thesis study put forward by our author at the Department of Eurasian Studies at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, firstly the energy profile that determines Russia's current energy actor is outlined. Then, the policies and strategies that were effective in the process of making energy one of the basic components of foreign policy in Russia under Putin's administration are discussed.

The third research article, written by Emre Altınışık, deals with the economic analysis of the opium trade in Asia between 1830-1918, while the fourth research article belongs to Onur Çelik and reveals the theoretical foundations on the classification of political regimes. Our author, who deals with totalitarian, authoritarian and democratic regimes, sheds light on us, our valued readers, by also addressing the theoretical framework with its current reflections.

The last research article, written by Can Ulusoy, presents a comparative analysis of the New Life Movement, an ideological quest in Nationalist China, with Kemalism, and makes an important contribution to both the literature on Chinese political history and the global effects of Kemalism. Our author, who presents an original and up-to-date study in terms of examining the interaction between Chiang Kai-shek’s “New Life Movement” and Kemalism in 1930s–1940s China in this detail for the first time, examines both the ideological debates within the Chinese Nationalist Party and the diplomatic contacts made during his visits to Turkiye, and discusses the modernization projects of the two single-party regimes in a comparative manner.

We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed to this issue of our journal by sending their works, and all the referees who have worked hard in the evaluation process of these works; we hope that the ongoing interest in our journal from the national and international academic community will continue.