As we expressed in the other spaces of this blog, the Near East is a region with historical connotations. First it was used by europeans to define the East of Asia, after it was defined accurately from the Crimean Peace; after it was used to define the region with countries that were dominated by the former Ottoman Empire. When we speak about the Near East, we speak about the same region? Definitely not. It exists several approximations of what the Near East is.
We can define Near East as the previous term used to describe the entire current Middle East area. But it also means the signification it has before, the territories dominated by Ottoman Empire, but we can also appoint that Near East is the region between Asia and Europe or we can say that Near East is the zone where the first civilizations took place. The complexity of this term explains why it is not useful nowadays. We define Near East as the historical region of between Asia and Europe that share cultures, especially archeological ones. Now the use of this term is only for academic purposes.
That explains the similarities and differences of this region:
SIMILARITIES
- They share approximately the same culture.
- They have the same religion, although they follow different parts of this religion.
- Have similar government organizations.
- Share an history, all the world conflicts makes the region acts like a one, in the past.
- Geomorphology of the terrain is the same: desert, desert mountains or plains.
- Same clima relatively.
- They share the same languages and dialects.
- They act together sometimes toward the world, but separately when it is about a domestic problem.
DIFFERENCES
- Due it is a "non-natural" region, it was coined by europeans, some parts of the region does not fit in the cultural shape on other one.
- The huge existance of differences makes that no international administration that rules the region never existed.
- They share a bit of their culture and ethnography, they are mostly arabs, arab-speaker and muslims, but each region it has their own particularities that makes parts of this region unique.
- It is a force marriage, so the differences are abundant.
- Some countries base their economy only in oil, other base their economy on the exportation of minerals.