Coups in the Middle East after the Second World War

The idea of nationalism gradually became prominent towards imperialist policies aimed at the Middle East in the 20th century. With regard to this ideology, the colonial states gave independence to the states of the region to keep their advantages and control the petroleum reservoirs with the strategy of building strong relationships. However, locals reacted to the fact that the colonial states continued to rule the country through the people they put into power under the cover of independence. This reaction brought along violent struggles together with the new world emerged after the Second World War. The emergence of the USA and the USSR as superpowers in the new world order caused significant changes in Middle East politics and both powers also got into a great competition to dominate the Middle East. The policies they implemented to attract the states of the region to their side in this competitive environment caused the emergence of duality between the neighbour states and the deterioration of the relations with each other. Therefore, the attempts of these powers to implement their own policies have led to groupings, unstable governments, uprisings and military coups in the Middle East. In this study, the political events, unstable administrations, alliances and military coups, took place in the Middle East between the years of 1945-1958, were examined based on Syria, Egypt, Iran and Iraq. It has been tried that the actors in the background of the coup are determined, especially being prioritized the military coups in this paper.