ABSTRACT
Ethnicity and sectarianism are major political and human fault lines in the Middle East. For centuries before the arrival of European colonialism, ethnic and religious allegiances determined the boundaries of communal loyalties and the framework in which political dynamics transpired. The nation-state is the arena in which ethnic and sectarian conflicts normally occur. Ethnic and sectarian activism takes a variety of forms, from formation of political parties to adoption of violent strategies. The likelihood of widening ethnic and sectarian conflicts in the Middle East is closely related to resources and to their distribution, to processes of modernization, to development, and to prospects for political pluralism. Some states in the Middle East, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, are successors to European-administered colonial territories. Turkey’s population is a mosaic of ethnic and sectarian groups with distinct cultural boundaries, including Greeks, Armenians, Chaldians, Jews, Kurds, and Alevis.
