The countries, demographics and governments of the Middle East.

1. Middle East
Made by: Benedict S. Gombocz

2. Middle East – Countries
• Bahrain
• Cyprus
• Egypt
• Iran
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Gaza Strip (not fully sovereign)
• West Bank (not fully sovereign)
• Qatar

3. Middle East – Countries (cont.)
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

4. Middle East: Demographics – Ethnic groups
• Arabs • Circassians
• Turks • Greeks
• Persians • Turcomans
• Somalis • Shabaks
• Jews • Yazidis
• Kurds • Mandeans
• Assyrians/Syriacs (Chaldo- • Georgians
Assyrians) • Roma
• Egyptian Copts • Gagauz
• Armenians • Berbers
• Arameans • Mhallami
• Azeris • Samaritans
• Maltese

5. Middle East: Demographics - Migration
• Large numbers of Kurds, Jews, Assyrians, Greeks and
Armenians as well as several Mandeans have left
counties like Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey to evade racial
and religious persecution.
• Several religious minorities including Christians,
Bahá'í and Zoroastrians have left Iran since the Islamic
Revolution of 1979.

6. Middle East: Demographics - Religions
• As the origin of three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam),
the Middle East is very diverse.
• Islam is the largest and predominant religion in the Middle East and
the religion of a vast majority of Arabs and a number of non-Arab
peoples including Iranians and Turks.
• Though they are not principle religions in the Middle East, other
faiths like Judaism and Christianity are important to the region.
• There are also many important minority religions including Bahá'í,
Yazdânism, Zoroastrianism, Mandeanism, Druze, Yarsan, Yazidism
and Shabakism.

7. Middle East: Demographics - Languages
• Arabic, Persian and Turkish are the three main languages in terms
of numbers of speakers and represent the Afro-Asiatic, Indo-
European, and Turkic language families, respectively; a variety of
other languages are also widely spoken in the Middle East.
• The most widely spoken language in the Middle East, Arabic is the
official language of all the Arab countries.
• Persian, the second most widely spoken, is the official language of
Iran and is also spoken in neighboring Turkey , Iraq, Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Turkish, the third most widely spoken language, is the official
language of Turkey and nearby Cyprus and has a smaller
community of speakers mainly in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the
Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania.

8. Middle East: Languages (cont.)
• Other languages spoken in the Middle East are Semitic languages
like Hebrew and Mesopotamian Arabic dialects spoken chiefly by
Assyrians and Mandeans.
• There are also a number of smaller languages: Armenian,
Azerbaijani, Berber, Circassian, smaller Iranian languages, Kurdish,
smaller Turkish languages (such as Gagauz), Shabaki, Yazidi, Roma,
Georgian, Greek, and several Modern South Arabian languages like
Geez; Maltese is also both linguistically and geographically a Middle
Eastern language.
• English is commonly spoken as a second language, particularly
among both the middle and upper classes in several countries such
as Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab
Emirates and Kuwait.

9. Middle East: Languages (cont.)
• French is spoken in former French colonies like Algeria, Lebanon
Syria, Morocco and Tunisia as well as in Egypt and Israel.
• Urdu is widely spoken in Saudi Arabia (where 20-25% of the
population is South Asian), the United Arab Emirates (where 50-
55% of the population is South Asian), Israel, and Qatar.
• The largest group of Romanian speakers in the Middle East is in
Israel, where at least 5% of the population speaks Romanian as of
1995.
• Due to emigration in the late 1990s, Russian is also spoken by a
significant portion of the Israel population and is the most widely
spoken non-official language in Israel behind English.

10. Democracy
• In terms of civil liberties, Israel is
considered the only democracy in
the Middle East with the
corresponding status of “flawed
democracy” and a score of 7.48.
• Ranked below Israel are Lebanon
and Turkey with scores of 5.82 and
5.73, respectively, and classified as
“hybrid regimes”.
• Also placed in the “hybrid regimes”
categories are the Palestinian
territories and Iraq.
• The remaining countries (Jordan,
Morocco and Syria for example) are
classified as authoritarian regimes;
scores lower than 2 are held by
countries ranked lower (i.e. Iran
and Saudi Arabia).

11. Measures of Democracy and index score
• Israel: 7.53 • Oman: 3.26
• Turkey: 5.73 • Qatar: 3.18
• Tunisia: 5.53 • Bahrain: 2.92
• Lebanon: 5.32 • United Arab Emirates: 2.58
• Palestinian Authority: 4.97 • Yemen: 2.57
• Mauritania: 4.17 • Afghanistan: 2.48
• Iraq: 4.03 • Sudan: 2.38
• Egypt: 3.95 • Syria: 1.99
• Jordan: 3.89 • Iran: 1.98
• Morocco: 3.83 • Saudi Arabia: 1.77
• Kuwait: 3.74
• Libya: 3.55
• Algeria: 3.44

12. Ongoing violence
• Demonstrations and protests in the Arab World for government
changes began on 18 December 2010; to date, these have been met
with revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a civil war in Libya leading to
the toppling of its government and killing of its leader for over 40
years; uprisings in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen; major protests in
Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman; and only minor
protests in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the
Western Sahara.
• The Arab countries share a history in common with Russia: Lack of
democracy and freedom.
• Israel is regularly threatened and targeted by active Palestinian
Islamist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

13. Saddam Hussein

14. Muammar Gaddafi

15. Osama Bin Laden