European Researcher. Series A

134-140

Authors: Sadruddin Ebrahimi, Filiz Katman

In recent decades, many countries have tended to use soft power as an influential tool in their foreign policies. A power that emphasizes the use of tools to create attractiveness for influencing and increasing authority in other countries. In the era of interdependence, the Islamic Republic of Iran is aware of the importance of soft power. Therefore, it takes the maximum advantage of using tools such as religion, culture and ideology in order to exercise its power over the regional countries. Specifically, the ideology of Islamic Revolution is one of the key tools that Iran uses to influence its neighboring countries. After the Islamic Revolution, Iran has been in search of new tools in order to promote its position in the Middle East; hence, it has attempted to transform every single tool as a form of soft power in order to speed up the process. In this paper, we tried to investigate the role of soft power and religion in Iran’s current position in the region. Our findings indicate that the usage of soft power has a huge impact on the current position of Iran. Particularly, religion – as a key tool of soft power – has played an important role in consolidating and promoting the regional status of the country. In the field of culture and religion, Iran has many commonalties with the regional counties. The usage of concepts such as; denial of foreign domination, Islamic justice and the unification of religion and politics has had a big impact on its usage of soft power. Therefore, Iran has used soft power as a key tool in its foreign policy in order to expand its influence in the region.

148-155

Authors: Sribas Goswami

Thepresent study is related to the problems of land acquisition for new industrial establishment, mining-induced displacement and resettlement occurring in different regions of West Bengal, India as a highly diverse regional socioeconomic issue. The study finds the source of challenges to public law and institutions providing humanitarian assistance as well as a matter of deep concern for human rights. This study also finds various dimensions of bulk land acquisition cases in Southern Bengal and problems associated with it. Thus, the land acquisition due to coal mining is increasingly becoming a coercive operation lacking in sensitivity to human consequences involved in trail if devastation and trauma it leaves behind. The piece of work probes into the deep of land acquisition policy of state government and people’s reaction on land acquisition for establishment of new industry as well as extension of existing industry. The findings focus on various dimensions of bulk land acquisition cases in Southern Bengal and problems associated with it.

163-177

Authors: Zhiyan Hassan, Filiz Katman

This paper is focused on an overview of Northern Iraq relations with Turkey, especially in terms of its geopolitical potentials, on those fields like geographical, political and economic challenges. It portrays and examines the main essence of relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq. It tries to answer the questions of how economic relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq affect each country. It explores the political, economic and geographical aspects which foster the relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq. It equally shows the energy aspect as the key instrument in building relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq. Northern Iraqi government begins to strengthen the relationship with all neighbors. It is due to the Northern Iraq’s geographical position, especially its importance for tourists, so, a lot of people are interested in Northern Iraq, number of businessmen from the neighbor countries especially from Turkey come to Ibrahim Khalil custom. Northern Iraqi region is rich in terms of natural sources such as oil, gas and many minerals, so, this leads for having good relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq. ISIS fighting in Northern Iraq interrupts relations between Erbil and Baghdad and causes economic downfall in the region, but it has an impact on Turkey and Northern Iraq relations in exporting oil and in the near future exporting natural gas from Northern Iraq to Turkey and to the other countries. This thesis consists of four main sections. The first chapter, as an introductory chapter, is focused on main research question, sub-questions and characteristics and research technique of the paper. Second chapter deals with the impact of geography on the relations between Turkey and Northern Iraq. The third chapter informs about political position of the Northern Iraq and its impacts on the relations with Turkey and the referendum in North of Iraq. In the fourth chapter, energy reserves in the Northern Iraq and its impacts on the relations with Turkey will be analyzed. In the conclusion, various aspects of the Turkey-Northern Iraq relations are revealed.

187-195

Authors: Sri Wulandari

In eradicating corruption crimes, society’s aspirations are needed and have an important role as social control. Therefore, it is necessary to intensify efforts to prevent and eradicate corruption while upholding human rights and the interests of society. This research was conducted using qualitative descriptive methods. In legal research, it generally applies statute approach, case approach, historical approach, comparative approach, and conceptual approach. Based on Law No. 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law No. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes, corruption was expressly formulated as formal crime. It means that even though the results of corruption have been returned to the state, the perpetrators of corruption will still be brought to justice and the judicial process applies the burden of reverse proof that is limited or balanced. It turns out that, in this Law, the defendant’s statement is not a strong evidence because it only becomes a supporting tool to the existing evidence. This provision has become a weakness in eradicating corruption crimes because the position of the defendant’s strong statement will be a valid evidence and a legal basis for the judge to impose a criminal sentence.