TRACTOR FC: THE GEOPOLITICAL IDENTITY STRONGHOLD OF SOUTH AZERBAIJAN
In modern political science and international relations, sport is no longer regarded merely as a field of entertainment or competition, but rather as one of the most powerful arenas for the expression of suppressed collective identities, political demands, and ethnic mobilization. In the northwestern region of the Islamic Republic of Iran known as South Azerbaijan, Tractor Football Club (formerly Tractor Sazi FC) has gone far beyond being a conventional football team and has become the “national” representative of a people and the principal platform of their civil rights struggle. Based in Tabriz, this club functions as a resistance anthem reflecting the collective will of a population of nearly 40 million against the centralist and Persian-centric assimilation policies pursued by the Iranian state for decades.
GAME-CHANGER” STRATEGY: IRAN’S GEOECONOMIC REPOSITIONING IN RESPONSE TO THE TRUMP 2.0 DOCTRINE AND THE ZANGEZUR CORRIDOR (TRIPP)
The re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2025, followed by the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, weakened Iran’s regional deterrence architecture and triggered a significant restructuring of the balance of power in the South Caucasus. In this context, the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP) agreement—brokered under U.S. auspices and signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan—has established the institutional foundation of a new geopolitical and geoeconomic order in the South Caucasus.
