Author: Kanayan Tamar

Karabakh will have better infrastructures by 2015, says parliament speaker

17:31 * 25.08.14

The president of Nagorno-Karabakh’s (Artsakh) National Assembly says
he expects the country to have better and more developed
infrastructures by 2015, the year which marks the 100th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide.

Speaking to reporters who visited the second Armenian republic last
week, Ashot Ghulyan particularly stressed the importance of the
ongoing construction of the highway connecting city of Martakert with
Armenia’s Vardenis town (Gegharkunik region). He also addressed the
existing problems in the country and the activities accomplished in
the past couple of years.

At what stage is Artsakh’s re-population process? What achievements do you have?

The re-population continues, as there isn’t any special project to
establish timeframes of several years to accomplish the process. We
must work towards implementing a re-population program in Artsakh,
always having the demographic development plan on the agenda. We
simply have to admit that re-population is never a self-driven
process. Our desire is to simultaneously organize several thousand
people’s re-population, but the economic and financial resources
aren’t big enough to allow us to implement such large-scale
[projects]. Several scores of people settle in Artsakh every year. A
similar program was also implemented for the re-population of
Syrian-Armenians.

What’s your point of view on the re-population of Yezidis in Artsakh?
Is it likely to change demography?

It is necessary to work in that direction without talking too much.
The authorities of Karabakh have never ruled out that possibility, and
I don’t think the volumes will be that [big] to have any influence.

What about the on-going activities in the road-development sector?

That’s a sensitive issue; we have been implementing very big strategic
projects since 1994-1995. As for the roads connecting villages with
one another, those are continuing activities, so we annually invest
money in that. I believe the construction of the Vardenis-Martakert
highway will be of considerable help in the coming couple of years.
Given that all the villages there are connected to that highway,
that’s likely to resolve big infrastructure problems. By 2015, we will
have a more developed system in Artsakh in terms of the
infrastructures. But that should not be thought the end point of our
activities, as we are also planning the launch of a power system
connecting Armenia with Artsakh.

What assistance projects are being implemented for young families?
Have there been any changes in the population records?

The projects under way are aimed at boosting young families’ birth
rate. For every newborn child, a bank account is opened by the Artsakh
authorities. For every sixth child, the family receives a new
apartment or a separate house. And we now think about doing the same
for every fifth child. Our projects are enough to enable young
families to have [many] children. The population hasn’t decreased; it
just has been relatively low compared to the past couple of years. I
cannot say we don’t have the emigration problem, but its volumes are
not big enough to raise any concerns. Most leave to work [abroad].

The journalists’ visit to Artsakh was organized upon the initiative of
the Holy See of St Echmiadzin and World Vision Armenia.

Armenia submits application to ECtHR to engage in DoÄ?u Perinçek’s case
as 3rd party

14:26, 25 August, 2014

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. The Government of the Republic of
Armenia has submitted an official application to the European Court of
Human Rights to be engaged as a third party in DoÄ?u Perinçek’s case.
Christine Melkonyan, the Press
Spokesperson of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia
Gevorg Kostanyan, stated about this in a conversation with
`Armenpress’. Among other things she stated that the deadline of
submitting the applications is August 26 of the current year and
Armenia uses its right and has already sent the relevant documents to
Strasbourg.

Previously it was reported that on July 15, in a conversation with
`Armenpress’, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia Gevorg
Kostanyan stated that the Armenian side is serious and decisive and
probably an advocates’ group will be created to record success in the
case.

Armenia’s President congratulates Uruguay’s President on Independence Day

13:36, 25 August, 2014

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. The President of the Republic of
Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has sent a congratulatory address to the
President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay José Alberto Mujica
Cordano on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day. The Mass
Media and Public Relations Department of the President’s Office
informed “Armenpress” about this.

A quarter of Russians consider Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state

YEREVAN, August 25 / ARKA /. Almost a quarter of Russians consider
Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state, according to the findings of
a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center.

RIA Novosti news agency reports that the study has also showed that
56% of Russians favor a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
and only 14% of respondents believe that it can not be solved without
the use of force. Some 30% of respondents had no idea about how it
could be resolved.

At the same time, some 45% of Russians were aware of the heightened
tension in the conflict zone a month ago with 10% of respondents
having detailed information about the situation, while 35% had only
heard about the heightened tension.Also 52% of respondents first heard
about the mounting tension in the conflict zone during the survey.

In the latest upsurge in fighting on the Karabakh “line of contact,”
which followed the July 31 killing of two Armenian soldiers in an
Azerbaijani incursion the latter’s forces lost 25 soldiers. The
Armenian size’s death toll was six servicemen. -0-

No pressure placed on Armenia for speedy CU accession – president

YEREVAN, August 25. /ARKA/. The allegations that Armenia has been
under pressure to join the Customs Union at a breathtaking pace are
not true, Sargsyan said at his meeting with young reporters at
Baze-2014 youth gathering in Tsakhkadzor on Sunday.

The entire accession process is the outcome of Armenia’s actions, but
not someone else’s wishes or requests, the president said.

“It is an important period for development of our country. A lot will
change in the country. I have no problems – either with those
criticizing me or the ones making every effort to support this idea
(of accession to the Customs Union – edit.). Time will show and people
will see who was right”, the president said.

Sargsyan somehow agreed that not all CU member-countries may be happy
about Armenia’s accession.

“We are a small country, a country with problems, and, naturally, our
accession may create problems also for the member-countries”, Sargsyan
said. Yet, they could have vetoed Armenia’s accession if they were
against, the president said.

The Russian government approved the agreement on Armenia’s accession
to the Eurasian Economic Union and submitted it for president’s
approval on August 14. The agreement was developed by the Eurasian
Economic Commission in cooperation with the authorities of Russia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia. -0–

The Olathenews, KS
Aug 24 2014

Bloomington-founded WTTV continues to grow, change

By JEFF LAFAVE
The Herald-Times

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. WTTV’s television legacy started with a converted
drugstore, Herman B Wells and a puppet show.

And now, after nearly 65 years on the air, Bloomington’s former
homegrown station will be the host of some marquee TV moments,
including David Letterman’s final “Late Show,” with its new network
affiliation.

Tribune Broadcasting Indianapolis LLC announced Aug. 11 that its
formerly Bloomington-based station — and Indiana’s second-ever TV
station — will replace WISH-TV as the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis as
of Jan. 1, 2015. It will show longtime favorites such as “60 Minutes”
and “The Price is Right” on a daily basis, as well as CBS’
presentation of Super Bowl 50.

The programming move for the current CW affiliate, however, is just
the latest in WTTV’s curvy, yet wholesome, history.

It all started in the careful hands of engineer Sarkes Tarzian, an
immigrant from Turkish Armenia, and his wife, Mary, in the late 1940s,
The Herald-Times reported ( ).

As electronics began to capture the attention of postwar America,
Sarkes Tarzian, the chief engineer of Bloomington’s RCA plant,
manufactured table-model and car radios.

Together, the ambitious couple had saved $50,000 at a time when many
Americans were seeking normalcy and long-term direction. Mary was
pushing Sarkes to start his own business.

By the end of the decade, the young couple would own a TV station, an
AM radio station and businesses manufacturing semiconductors, TV
tuners and broadcast equipment.

“It’s amazing that two people who weren’t so well-off were able to
save that much money,” said son Tom Tarzian, current president and CEO
of Sarkes Tarzian Inc.

Tom, born in 1946, essentially grew up alongside WTTV. He and sister
Patricia were raised by parents who also were attempting to curate an
entire TV station. They saw the struggle firsthand.

“They had to be thrifty with money they didn’t really have,” Tom said.

The decision was sudden, but decisive: Sarkes came home one day and
told Mary it was time for their mutual dream to become a reality.

“Let’s talk about it,” Mary said — but Sarkes had already quit his
position at RCA.

They would set up base camp in an empty storefront with Sarkes as a
special consulting engineer. He manufactured switch-type tuners to
keep up with video’s broadcast boom, and became responsible for an
estimated 35 percent of output of electrical equipment, such as
selenium rectifiers, in the U.S.

His ingenuity kept overhead low en route to building the family TV
station. Vintage television blog “Faded Signals” estimates that Sarkes
Tarzian was able to re-create a $300 microphone boom for a tenth of
the price.

The original transmitting antenna for WTTV, Tom Tarzian says, was at
least partly made from household guttering. Whatever did the trick,
Sarkes Tarzian’s crew of 10 do-it-alls was up for the challenge.

“To these engineers,” Sarkes Tarzian told The Herald-Telephone
newspaper upon the channel’s debut, “I have only the highest of
praise, since they made most of the major equipment to be used in the
operation of WTTV.”

On Nov. 11, 1949, WTTV — “Tarzian TeleVision” — broadcast its
inaugural show from a converted drugstore at 535 S. Walnut St.,
according to H-T archives. Today, that’s the street address of an
Arby’s fast-food restaurant.

Bloomingtonians tuned in to Channel 10 promptly at 7:30 p.m. to see
the new sensation. H-T records indicate that 96 residents bought their
first TV set that week.

Viewers were welcomed by Indiana’s U.S. Sen. Homer E. Capehart,
legendary Indiana University President Herman B Wells, Bloomington
Mayor Thomas L. Lemon, the city school superintendent H.E. Binford,
and station owners Sarkes and Mary Tarzian, all in the studio to
dedicate the channel, according to H-T archives.

And then, at 8 p.m., NBC’s nationally syndicated puppet show, “Kukla,
Fran and Ollie,” promptly took over.

The pioneer Armistice Day broadcast lasted from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.,
rounding out with Big Ten football highlights and a feature on the
lumber industry — then promptly signed off for the night.

WTTV had reached the two-hour broadcast minimum established by the FCC
for that era, and the station would continue this broadcast minimum in
its early years, operating from 7 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday,
with extended hours for sports.

The station also used coverage of Bloomington High School and
University High School basketball games as a dynamic selling point.
Families could see a Hoosier tradition in their own homes for the
first time. The game between UHS and Ellettsville, on Nov. 22, 1949,
became the first local sports match shown on Bloomington TV.

“I’m sure it was very exciting for Bloomington in those days,” Tom Tarzian said.

Even the NCAA got in on the action, when a road game for IU’s men’s
basketball team against Illinois further developed the station’s
capabilities. WTTV used microwave hops to get the signal from
Champaign to Chicago, to two or three locations in Ohio, then
Cincinnati, and finally back to Bloomington for the Hoosier Nation.

The same ingenuity was used in local broadcasts: A cable strung across
the street to the nearby high school would later transmit local sports
games, student plays and more. “Meet Your Teacher,” where students
interviewed their instructors, became a city favorite.

Tom Tarzian, only 3 years old when the station was founded, recalls
being a so-called “plant rat.”

“If you found some people around today, they’d tell you I was a real
pest,” Tom said. “You’d see the tuners and smell the solder. You’d go
hang out in one of the broadcast studios, especially for the radio
stations, and try to be quiet.”

WTTV, a station on the move, was anything but quiet. WTTV created and
fostered its own distinct newscast in 1950, which would last four
decades.

The station became an independent juggernaut, adopting a buffet of
programming from CBS, ABC, NBC and the former “DuMont” network, which
ceased broadcasting in 1956. Today, the norm of TV broadcasting is
brand exclusivity — reflected in Tribune’s current decision to
transfer WTTV to CBS in 2015.

In 1954, WTTV moved to its longtime Bloomington home at Highland
Avenue and East Davis Street, where it got a proper 1,000-foot
broadcast tower. Its signal was strong enough to reach Indianapolis
and Terre Haute, pivotal TV markets.

A short time later, WTTV changed its frequency from Channel 10 to
Channel 4, which remains its current channel number today, and opened
an official station in Indianapolis, becoming a two-city broadcast
operation from the 3900 block of Bluff Road.

And then, there were the glory years folks in Indiana grew to love
with cult fervor: Bob Carter played “Sammy Terry,” a ghoulish figure
who hosted campy horror movies for WTTV-4 on Saturday nights from 1962
through the late 1980s.

“Cowboy Bob” Glaze joined the mix for a Western-themed program
starting in the 1970s, earning the hearts of kids and adults alike.

And “Janie” Woods Hodge, the ukulele-playing woman who hosted cartoon
segments — thus, the titular “Popeye and Janie” — received her own
variety show simply called “Janie,” appearing every weekday from 1963
to 1986, according to the websites “Hoosier History Live” and
IMDB.com.

The regional achievements came rolling in, too, for the young station:
WTTV became the first Indiana station to broadcast a show in color,
and made a full-color transition in 1965. It was the first Indiana
station to extend its broadcast day to 24 hours, in 1979.

But by the late 1970s, the Tarzian family was finished with WTTV.
According to David J. Bodenhammer’s book “Encyclopedia of
Indianapolis,” Sarkes Tarzian sold WTTV-4 to the Teleco Media company
for more than $26 million in 1978, the most of any nonmajor network in
the United States at the time.

WTTV would be subject to constant repackaging, including ownership
from the Tele-Am Corporation in 1984, Warner Brothers in 1998 and
current parent Tribune Broadcasting since 2002.

Sarkes Tarzian Inc. continues to operate as a radio and TV company
from 205 N. College Ave. in Bloomington. Its child, WTTV, is almost
completely an Indianapolis station these days: It operates adjacent to
sister Tribune station WXIN, near West 71st Street and I-465, under
Tribune’s FCC license permit issued to Bloomington.

WTTV’s closest relation to Bloomington today is its massive
broadcasting antenna signal near Trafalgar — the largest structure in
the state at 1,132 feet — built in 1957. Under the FCC’s power rules,
that location is the closest spot to Indianapolis where Bloomington
can still consistently get a city-grade signal.

And although the WTTV station has gone from a simple two-hour-a-day
operation into a national affiliate within the span of a lifetime, its
early history is truly Hoosier: Created with saved money, built with
callused hands and managed by local folks.

However, Tom Tarzian remembers vividly what made Sarkes Tarzian Inc.’s
affiliation with the channel a homespun Bloomington success for nearly
30 years:

“Dad came home every night for dinner and stayed,” he said. “He
traveled a lot, but he made time for the thing he considered to be
more important — his family.”

—

Information from: The Herald Times,

Clin d’oeil du Ice Bucket Challenge
Bill Gates s’arrose à l’aide d’un sceau aux couleurs de l’Arménie 😉

Dans le cadre du “Ice Bucket Challenge”, une opération lancée par le
créateur de Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, dans le but de lutter contre la
maladie de Charcot, l’homme le plus riche de la planète, Bill Gates
fondateur de Microsoft a relevé le défi du sceau d’eau glacé en
s’aspergeant avec un récipient de sa fabrication, curieusement peint
aux couleurs de l’Arménie… La vidéo a été vue 15 millions de fois.

L’opération a rapporté 11 millions de dollars, contre 1,7 M$ en 2013.

dimanche 24 août 2014,
Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

SPORTS
Anoush Krikorian (boxe, 51 kg) médaille de bronze à Nanjing (Chine)

A Nanjing (Chine) la boxeuse Anoush Krikorian (51 kg) a remporté la
4ème médaille de l’Arménie aux Jeux Olympiques de la Jeunesse.
L’Arménienne parvenue en demi-finale était opposée à la Chinoise Yang
Youan. Mais Anoush Krikorian a perdu son combat…empochant la
médaille de bronze. L’Arménie dispose désormais 2 médailles d’or, 1
d’argent et 1 de bronze à ces 2ème Jeux Olympiques de la Jeunesse
auxquels prennent part près de deux cents pays. Au tableau provisoire
des médailles l’Arménie est 19ème.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 24 août 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

Internet
Un groupe de Hackers Arméniens pirate 360 sites turcs

Selon Armenpress, un groupe de hackers arméniens, dit « Cyber Armée
Monte Melkonian », aurait piraté 360 sites turcs.

Les pirates auraient posté sur les sites web des photos, des
informations et des vidéos relatives au génocide des Arméniens,
exhortant la Turquie à reconnaître le génocide.

dimanche 24 août 2014,
Jean Eckian ©armenews.com

The End of the Modern Middle East?

by Gabriel Scheinmann
inFocus Quarterly
Spring 2014

Until now, the post-Ottoman Middle Eastern order, fashioned by wartime
exigency, imperialist ambitions, and ignorance of local identities,
has survived independence, revolutions, and wars. A political map of
the region sketched in 1930 looks nearly identical to one drawn in
2010. Even as the ongoing Arab revolt exposes submerged seams,
Washington remains committed to defending the cartographic status quo.

In contrast, the geopolitical evolution of modern Europe has entailed
the gradual emergence of nation-states out of the ashes of numerous
multi-ethnic European empires. Just as the concept of
self-determination eventually led to the greatest period of peace in
Europe’s history, the Balkanization of the Middle East, while violent
at present, could lead to a more peaceful region in the future.

The Post-Ottoman Regime

As it did in Europe, World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire radically transformed the political geography of the Middle
East. Ottoman provinces became Arab kingdoms and Christian and Jewish
enclaves were carved out in Lebanon and Palestine, respectively.
Syria, Libya, and Palestine were names resurrected from Roman
antiquity: Libya reappeared in 1934, Palestine was merely a Syrian
appendage, and the French mandate marked the first time Syria had been
used as the name of a state. Iraq had been a medieval caliphal
province, whereas Lebanon was a mountain and Jordan a river. The new
Arabic-speaking states adopted derivations of the Flag of the Arab
Revolt, which had been wholly designed by British diplomat Sir Mark
Sykes. The four colors of the Arab flag–black, white, green, and
red–each represented the standards of different Arab
dynasties–Abbasid, Umayyad, Fatimid, and Hashemite–and remain the
colors of half of today’s Arab states.

Furthermore, the borders of the new states were determined not by
demography, but by the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, which became the
blueprint of today’s map. A large Kurdish population was divided among
four states, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Shiite Arabs were
similarly split, running from Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the eastern
provinces of Saudi Arabia. Alawites, a heterodox Shiite Arab sect,
were subdivided, residing today along the northern Lebanese, Syria,
and southwestern Turkish coasts. The Druze were distributed between
what today is Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Lebanon, supposedly a
Christian redoubt, entailed large Sunni and Shiite Arab populations,
as well as Alawi and Druze. At the dawn of the 21st century, minority
ethnic groups ruled Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Bahrain, often
repressively.

By the 1960s, Arab republics outnumbered Arab monarchies, as coups
were common and kingdoms were overthrown. Attempts to merge alien
states–such as Syria with Egypt and Iraq with Jordan–were short-lived
and repeated failure to excise the Zionist presence marked the end of
the endeavor. Arab leaders proved more interested in maintaining their
own European-delivered fiefs than in abdicating their cathedra for the
greater Arab cause. Through it all, neither independence nor Israel
had altered the imperial map.

While the external borders remained unaltered, ethno-religious strife
was evident throughout. The creation of Greater Lebanon, turning a
once Christian enclave into a multi-communal state, led to decades of
discontent that ultimately erupted into a full-blown ethnic civil war,
killing over 100,000. In Iraq and Syria, strongmen from minority
groups adopted Baathism, a secular Arab nationalist ideology, in order
to centralize power and subdue ethnic differences, but to little
avail. Sunni Arab uprisings against an Alawite Arab regime in Syria in
the 1980s and Shiite Arab uprisings against a Sunni Arab regime in
Iraq in the 1990s were squashed. The Sykes-Picot order barely
flinched.

Similarly, varied efforts were made to forcefully marginalize Kurdish
identity. Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship in 1962 and
both the Asad and Hussein regimes attempted to “Arabize” Kurdish areas
by expelling local populations and supplanting them with Arabs from
elsewhere. Saddam’s infamous gassing of large Kurdish populations in
Halabja in 1988 and the broader al-Anfal ethnic cleansing campaign mar
Kurdish history. In Turkey, Kemalism, also a secular-nationalist
ideology, attempted to “Turkify” the country’s large population of
Kurds, going so far as to denying their existence through the
ubiquitous use of the term “Mountain Turks.” A Kurdish insurgency has
blazed across southeastern Turkey for several decades, with upwards of
50,000 casualties.

Even after excising themselves from direct regional control, external
powers have repeatedly intervened to caulk the cracks exposed by
ethnic violence. Twice, first in 1958 and again in 1982, American
forces were sent to quell ethnic violence in Lebanon. After the Gulf
War, Washington imposed no-fly zones in Iraq to protect the Kurds and
Shia respectively from Sunni Baathist attacks. More recently, French
and U.S. forces have tried to roll back a secessionist Tuareg state in
northern Mali. Meanwhile, Washington flatly opposes Kurdish moves
towards independence, chastising KRG-Turkish strategic cooperation and
supporting Baghdad. Whatever the outcome in Syria, U.S. and European
officials agree on keeping Syria intact. No matter the volatility,
Washington, Paris, and London have clung onto the post-war order that
they created.

A reluctance to contemplate redrawing the map is understandable.
Today’s Middle East is itself an example of poorly-executed
partitions. Inviolable political borders are the defining
characteristic of state sovereignty, without which the modern concept
of citizenship or nationality is meaningless. Only in extraordinary
circumstances and from positions of power, such as in Kosovo, do
states support unilateral partitions. For example, Kosovo remains
unrecognized by states that have secessionist movements of their own,
such as Spain, Russia, and China. By violating the sanctity of
sovereign borders, precedents become set. If Kosovars deserve
self-determination, why don’t Tibetans, Catalans, or Chechens? In
order to maintain global stability, states shy away from fiddling with
borders, concerned that the redrawing may never end.

Looking in the Mirror

Ironically, today’s Europe, which also once consisted of multi-ethnic
empires, is the result of a century of partitions, secessions, and
wars of self-determination. The Ottoman Empire once ruled southeast
Europe, including Greece, the Balkans, Romania, and Bulgaria. Prior to
World War I, the Russian Empire roosted on eight modern European
states. Norway achieved independence from Denmark and then Sweden only
in 1905. Austria-Hungary was a conglomeration that has given way to
six independent nation-states. Nearly a century after its creation,
the dissolution of Yugoslavia–from whence comes “Balkanization”–has
resulted, so far, in seven states. Meanwhile, Spain, the United
Kingdom, and Belgium may look different in coming years as they
grapple with Catalan, Scottish, and Flemish nationalism, respectively.
Europe has become a bastion of nation-states–50 in total–and is a
shining example of how squiggly borders can lead to greater peace and
stability. Recent events in Ukraine only highlight this dynamic.

With few exceptions, each European state now exclusively consists of a
people with a shared ethnicity, a shared language, and a shared
religion. The French speak French in France; Germans speak German in
Germany. In contrast, the modern Middle East houses only four such
entities–Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey–and even these, as
renowned Middle Eastern historian Bernard Lewis once wrote, have
exceptions. “Iran” is a modern term, Arabic has no word for Arabia,
and Israeli Arabs, without including those in the West Bank, comprise
nearly 20% of the Jewish State’s population. Turkey’s supposed ethnic
homogeneity ignores its 15-million strong Kurdish population and was
achieved only following the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians and
forced expulsion of 1.5 million Orthodox Greeks in the aftermath of
World War I.

Previous flickers of self-determination were contemplated, but never
fully realized. President Wilson’s Fourteen Points included a specific
reference to self-rule for the Ottoman Empire’s non-Turkish
minorities, yet was never implemented. After expelling the
British-installed Hashemite ruler of Damascus in 1920, France, more
aware of the ethnic mosaic than their cross-Channel collaborators,
actually created five separate Levantine states based on the Ottoman
vilayets: Greater Lebanon, an Alawite mountain state, a Druze mountain
state, the State of Aleppo, and the State of Damascus. However,
concerned that a rising Germany was making inroads into its colonies,
France acquiesced to a unified Syria in 1936. Only Lebanon survived as
an independent entity and, even then, had incorporated large,
non-Christian areas over French objections.

Similarly, the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which ended the war between the
Ottomans and the Allies, granted immediate independence to the Hijaz
and Ottoman Armenia–sometimes known as “Wilsonian Armenia” after the
United States drew its borders–and eventual statehood to Ottoman
Kurdistan. However, these arrangements were also quickly reversed
three years later after Turkish forces smashed the Western-backed
Greek and Armenian armies. A renegotiated settlement, the Treaty of
Lausanne, ended the dreams of Greater Kurdistan and Greater Armenia
and set the boundaries of modern Turkey. Implementation of any of
these paths would have dramatically altered the post-Ottoman era.

The Identity Revolution

The map of the modern Middle East is potentially on the cusp of
drastic changes. A renaissance in Kurdish nationalism, as a result of
the U.S.-led liberation–their word–of Iraq, threatens to dramatically
redraw the boundaries in the heart of the region. The semi-autonomous
Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq issues its own visas,
hoists its own flag, and speaks its own language. A recent truce is
intended to end the Kurdish armed insurgency in Turkey in return for
far greater official Turkish recognition of Kurdish identity. As an
outcome of the Syrian conflict, Kurds have declared a provincial
government in the northeast corner of Syria, which they’ve renamed
“Rojava” or Western Kurdistan. Kurds now control a 400mile-wide band
of territory, from the Iran-Iraq border to the Syrian town of Ras
al-Ain, and are expanding their jurisdiction.

The U.S-led overthrow of the minority Sunni regime in Iraq marked an
etch-a-sketch moment in the modern Middle East. Majority Shiite rule
returned to Baghdad for the first time since the seventeenth century,
raising the hopes of beleaguered Shiite Arab populations in Kuwait,
Bahrain, and eastern Saudi Arabia. A recent Iraqi cabinet statement of
support for the creation of three new provinces in western Iraq,
giving Turkmen, Christians, and Sunni Arabs a greater share of the
federal budget, will likely not satisfy newly dispossessed Sunnis who
have demanded greater autonomy from Baghdad.

Likewise, the Syrian uprising has unleashed ethnic sectarianism that
claws at the current borders. Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite fighters have
poured into Syria to help preserve Alawite rule in Damascus. Ethnic
cleansing in coastal Syria has entertained talk of the creation of
“Alawitistan”, an Alawite enclave protected by the mountains that
could eventually stretch into northern Lebanon and Turkey’s Hatay
province. The trans-national Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)
is a key force in the Syrian rebellion and recently took over the
major Sunni cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, as violence has spiraled to
nearly 2007 levels. A Druze enclave could emerge in southern Syria,
containing the nearly 1 million Lebanese and Syrian Druze. In the
future, Iraq, Syria, and even Lebanon may only be rump states, as
co-nationals seek to consolidate control across existing borders.

While these changes could take decades to play out, new entities have
already made their first leaps towards independence. In 2011, South
Sudan seceded along ethno-religious lines, marking the first
internationally recognized change in the borders of a Middle Eastern
state in nearly 80 years. Meanwhile, Ghaddafi’s downfall not only
threatens to devolve power to Libya’s former city-states, but has also
impacted the identities of Libya’s neighbors. In April 2012, the
National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad declared the
independence of northern Mali, setting in motion the French-led
intervention to roll back the secession and restore Malian sovereignty
last year. The “Arab Spring” has also roused Berber identity in Libya,
Algeria, and Morocco, where a Moroccan minister spoke Amazigh, the
Berber language, for the first time in parliament.

Ending support for the Sykes-Picot order is not equivalent to
unilaterally redrawing the map of the Middle East from Washington.
Events on the ground, such as Kurdish nationalism, Alawite retreats,
or Sunni Arab brotherhood, will drive these changes. The emergence of
Kurdistan or Alawitistan or the shrinking of the Maronite enclave in
Lebanon could partition clashing nations and dim long-running
ethno-religious violence. Like the Balkanization of Europe, cultures
would still compete, but the reduced stakes could ultimately lead to a
more stable and peaceful region.

Writing in 1989, historian David Fromkin compared Europe’s political
evolution to that of the Muslim Middle East. The length of time may be
different, “but its issue is the same: how diverse peoples are to
regroup to create new political identities for themselves after the
collapse of an ages-old imperial order to which they had grown
accustomed. The Allies proposed a post-Ottoman design for the region
in the early 1920s. The continuing question is whether the peoples of
the region will accept it.” A quarter-century later, Fromkin’s
question is in the process of being answered. The peoples of the
region no longer accept the post-Ottoman system and their calls for
self-determination echo those of European peoples of the last few
centuries. Perhaps we should heed their call.

Gabriel Scheinmann is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University and an
analyst at Wikistrat, Inc. An earlier version of this article appeared
in The Tower Magazine.