Middle East Conflicts

Introduction

The Middle East area has been in a frequent state of turmoil for many times in the past centuries. It is an area where numerous modern civilisations have originated, dating back to the times of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent. It is also an area where some of the world´s largest natural resource reserves are located, ranging from oil to natural gas. Yet it is also an area which has experienced wars and armed conflicts on an almost repetitive basis in the past 2000 years. Many of these conflicts were waged for reasons of religious and political domination. A good example are the crusades in the Middle Ages, which have left their legacy in the area until today. Many of the conflicts were waged as a result of foreign intervention.

This was then particularly notable in the areas where modern day Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon are located. After the complete partition of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, numerous foreign interests started to spread their political ideals in the area. These foreign influences included the United Kingdom and France amongst others. Between World War I and World War II, new countries were formed by the influential powers, with little regard to ethnic and religious composition of specific areas of the troubled region. This was likely one of the main building blocks for the unrests that have increased since. Majority of the Middle Eastern

Igniting in Tunisia in late 2010, the series of revolutions and uprisings saw an end to dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, whilst Morocco and Algeria saw massive demonstration demanding the reform of the government. The legacy of the conflict continues to fuel the current situation in Yemen. Syria too was the setting of protests, which were not exactly peaceful. But unlike in other countries affected by the Arab Spring, the government refused to step down from its position. The Al-Assad family did not succumb to the demonstrations and initiated a civil war which lasts until today. The civil war, accompanied by chaos, saw fighting of different religious groups, ethnicities and minorities in ever varying coalitions. This sparked a wave of religious extremism, with the extremist group ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant), often called as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), seizing the opportunity and entering the conflict with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the area. Throughout the process, they used, and still are using, chemical weapons, mass murders, torture and civilian bombings to dominate their seized areas. This is also one of the reasons why Syria became the world´s number 1 source of refugees. The conflict in Syria lasts until today, but it is different to what it has been previously, because of the intervention of the army of the Russian