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MIDDLE EAST/
WESTERN ASIA
The Caucasus
Azerbaijan
• Fragmented state – southwestern portion is separated by
Armenia
• Ethnicity – 7 million Azeris in Azerbaijan (91%)
• Armenians are 1.35%
• 16 million Azeris in northern Iran (24%)
• Azeris have political responsibility in Iran, but Azeri language teaching is
restricted
• Internationally recognized for its religious tolerance!
• Any type of persecution is constitutionally outlawed
Azerbaijan capital: Baku
Armenia
• Political geography • Independent Armenia created after WWI, but soon split between Turkey and
the Soviet Union
• Gained independence in 1991
• Conflict with Azerbaijan over an Armenian dominant enclave
• Technically part of Azerbaijan, but acts as an independent republic, Artsakh
• Ethnicity • Late 19th and early 20th century massacres organized by the Turks
• Estimates as high as 1.5 million killed
• Turkey still won’t describe the event as genocide
• Others had to migrate to Russia when gained control of eastern Armenia in 1828
• Armenia is 98% Armenian = most ethnically homogenous in the Caucasus
• Religion - converted to Christianity in 303 • Lived as an isolated Christian enclave under the rule of Turkish Muslims
Georgia
• Ethnicity
• More diverse than Armenia and Azerbaijan
• Ethnic Georgians are 71% and the others are Armenian, Azeri, Russian,
Ossetian, and more
• Conflict
• 1990s – Abkhazians fought for independence
• 2008 – Ossetians fought for independence
• Most countries do not recognize them but they operate as if they
were independent
Iran
• Ethnicity
• Predominantly Persian with some Azeri and Baluchi
• Persians see themselves as descendant from Indo-European tribes
migrating from Central Asia
• Religion
• Persians are the largest ethnic group adherent to Shiite Islam
• Predominant language
• Indo-European family
• Indo-Iranian branch
• Iranian (Western) group
• Persian (Farsi)
Iran
• Conflict with the US
• 1979 – a revolution overthrows the pro-US dictator
• Iran proclaimed as an Islamic republic
• Militants seized the U.S. embassy in 1979 and held 62 Americans hostage
• Events that the movie Argo is based on
• 2005 – US accuses Iran of harboring al-Qaeda
• Also international resistance to Iran’s nuclear program
• Conflict with Iraq
• Fought between 1980-88 over the Shatt al-Arab waterway at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• Iran gained control in 1975
• Iraq seized the waterway during the Iranian revolution
• 1.5 million died in the war
Iraq conflict with US
• US attacked in 2003 to depose Saddam Hussein because
of suspicions of chemical weapons
• Evidence didn’t materialize for weapons of mass
destruction
• US re-centered their campaign around the need to oust the violent
Hussein
• US became embroiled in conflict with various religious sects and tribes
• Little international support
Iraq
• Ethnicity
• 75% Arab ethnicity
• 2/3 Shiite
• Opposed US intervention due to shared hostility with Shiite Iran
• 1/3 Sunni
• Opposed US intervention because they had elevated privilege due to
Hussein’s Sunni ethnicity
• 17% Kurdish ethnicity
• Welcomed US intervention due to their mistreatment under Hussein
• Most Iraqis have stronger loyalty to tribe or clan than to state or
major ethnicity
Israel
• Religion – Judaism
• Religious Conflict
• Jewish immigration into the area was limited after WWI
• After WWII Israel was created and tensions escalated with
Palestinian neighbors (would become Jordan)
• Especially in the West Bank
• Conflict with neighbors off and on from 1948-1979
• Language
• Hebrew was an extinct language that has been completely revived
• Represented a shared connection between members of the returning
diaspora after WWII
• Arabic also an official language
Jordan
• Persistent conflicts with Israel
• Held the West Bank until the 1967 Six-Day War
• Participant in 1948-1949 War, 1967 Six-Day War, and the 1973
Yom Kippur War
Lebanon
• Ethnic conflict
• 40% Christians who view themselves as descendant from ancient
Phoenicians
• Largest denomination is Maronite
• Second largest is Greek Orthodox
• 60% Muslims who view themselves as ethnically Arab
• Gained independence in 1943
• Constitution held for proportional representation of each group as
of 1932 census
• Civil war between 1975 and 1990
• Treaty in 1990 made the legislature 50/50, Christian/Islam
Saudi Arabia
• Largest and most populous country in the Arabian Peninsula
• International trade path to development • Gained wealth extremely rapidly as oil prices rose during the 1970s
• Russia, Saudi Arabia, and US are the top three producers
• Reinvested petroleum revenue for infrastructure improvements • Housing, highways, hospitals, airports, universities,
telecommunications
• Steel, aluminum, and petrochemical factories compete internationally with the help of government subsidies
• Pastoral nomadism – the Bedouins • Saudi government contracts Bedouin territory to use the land for
agriculture or development
• Modern populations are increasingly sedentary in lifestyle
Syria
• Used to control the Golan Heights prior to the 1967 Six-
Day War
• 2 million Kurds live in Syria
• 9% of the population
Turkey
• Bostans – small gardens inside of Istanbul
• Labor intensive gardening
• Small plots of land
Kurds in Turkey
• 14 million in eastern Turkey
• 19% of population
• Turks tried to create homogeneity by suppressing Kurdish
culture
• Kurdish language was illegal until 1991
• Still illegal for broadcast or education
• Kurdish guerrillas have waged war against the Turkish military
since 1984
Turkey: Cyprus
• Cyprus – an island south of Turkey ethnically split between Greece and Turkey • 18% of population is Turkish
• 78% Greek
• Gained independence from Britain in 1960 • Turkish minority had substantial power over its own education, religion, and
culture in the constitution
• 1974 – Several Greek military officers seized control of the government • Defeated and restored the original government but the Turkish portion of the
island then declared independence • Only recognized by Turkey
• Originally the ethnicities mingled, but after the conflict a buffer zone was created and the ethnicities concentrated on either side • Improved relationship now
• Entered the UN as Cyprus in 2004, but still not unified