Minorities in the Middle East

I have to confess that I am not extremely familiar from the academic point of view with the history and reliable references of minorities from the Middle East. I have a limited direct knowledge of the area and I had the occasion to meet in person or to have professional dialogues with people from the region, with various minority background. But I am reading very often media reports - with a careful scientific distance - and I see how often the minority issue is raised, used and misused. I am also trying to write currently an article about the possible comparisons between the approach to minority issues in various regions, as the South-Eastern Europe, Black Sea Region and, last but not least, the Middle East. My main idea is that without the pressure of joining in a near future global alliances and organizations as EU and NATO, offering subsequent economic and symbolic advantages, the situation of minorities will not receive soon a proper legal framework.

The recent conference held in Berlin by prof. Mordechai Zaken, author of a book about the Jewish communities in the Middle East, was a perfect challenge to orient my academic interests towards different historical, cultural and geographical space. The main focus on the conference was to explain the misuse of the comparison between the situation of the Kurds and of the Palestinians. Among the most important there are: different demographic data, lack of political will from the part of the states to get involved in supporting the Kurdish case, geopolitical and political opportunism in abusing the "Palestinian case", but also the lack of trained and organized elites and of a clear political manifesto and ways of action (in the Kurdish case). Repeating the same patterns or accepting various involvement from outside must be balanced once the clear interests are set. The religious aspects might be important, but the smart and targeted actions and the creation of valuable elites will give, by far, more weight and support for a coherent and, at the end, successful action.