How far “east” is the Middle East?

And he created the Middle East

an imitation of your eastern eyes

Chaotic

suffering

Tired

Beautiful

Abbas Hussein Nejad, Iranian poet

Have you ever searched on the map to see the actual location of the area that is known as the Middle East? If you have been curious to know where the central area of the world is and have looked for it, you already know the answer to the first question!

When you open a world map in front of you, you will see that the Middle East is located in the central area of the map. Then you might wonder why it is called the “Middle East”. Simply because the American naval strategist Alfred Mahan who came up with this name, was looking at it from the west!

Junction of the continents

The region is a tricontinental hub located at the junction of three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. Some of the world's most important trade routes lie within this global crossroad. Therefore it is an extremely important region in the matter of geopolitics and geoeconomics.

The starting point of civilization and divine religions 

The Middle East is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and with the most important religious places of worship, it has significant importance in terms of religion and culture. Meanwhile, the very first civilizations in the world were located in this region, first in what is now Iraq and Syria, and later in Egypt and Persia. 

War, terror, escalation, instability, lack of development…

These terms might be the first descriptions that come to our minds when thinking about the Middle East. 

Although the reflection of news about the Middle East and its chaotic and underdeveloped countries is mainly referred to as religious zealous, corrupt, and government incompetence. We should not forget that most of the countries in this region have been colonized and exploited by Western countries. And even despite the geographical distance, the countries were a reconciliation fee for countries involved in the first and second World Wars.

The Middle East is one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Since 1908 when the first large deposit of oil was discovered in Persia (now Iran), until today the region is the biggest source of energy with more than 50 percent of the world's oil and 40 percent of natural gas sources. The middle east has been the playground of imperialist countries. Puppeteering their government and suppressing every social movement. Manipulating the youths' minds through cultural invasion to guarantee that the trajectory of the exploitation of resources, the roots and the market remain as they deem "right". Here, "right" means human rights, journalists' rights, women’s and the minority's rights, all at the service of the imperialists' benefits.

Today the US has more than 30 military bases and facilities in the region of the Middle East with over 42,000 troops, which makes it hopeless for the people of the region to think of a stable and peaceful situation in the near future. Now it seems like the roots of wars, instabilities, lack of development, and economic problems in the Middle East, are not only in religious prejudices or corruption and incompetence of governments and rulers. Middle Eastern countries have never had a chance to freely and peacefully progress and move towards democracy and development.

Middle East is the name of a woman like me,

A woman,

Who washes her clothes,

In a tub of blood

And soaks her dishes,

In her own tears…

Erfan Nazar Ahari, Iranian poet