*There are 28 recognised states in the Middle East, as well as two states that are trying to assert their independence, and a number of ethnic groups seeking their own nation-states.

*The area known as Western Sahara was claimed by Spain in the early 20th Century, but when Spain departed in 1976, Morocco invaded immediately and laid claim to the area.  However, there was also a local government that called their country the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (which is recognised by about 80 nations worldwide).  Despite this, Morocco controls about 2/3 of the area, and although it is not recognised as the legitimate government of the area by most of the rest of the world, it has no serious plans to relinquish its claims.

*Ever since losing the last pieces of their own territory in the Six-Day War of 1967, the Palestinian people of the Levant have sought to have their own nation-state again.  Under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, the PLO engaged in terrorist activities beginning in 1969 to try to force Israel to recognise its demands, including two period of concerted attacks called the First and Second Intifada in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005.

*In 1993, Israel and the PLO (and other Palestinian leaders) began negotiating a settlement called the Oslo Accords that, in 1994, created the Palestinian Authority, a sort of government for the Palestinian peoples living in Israel.  Today, the Palestinian Authority governs all of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank (land seized during the Six-Day War), but wants more of the West Bank.  It has also failed to provide the security in its areas that it ought to have.  However, in early 2005 it did hold free elections, and is on the way to forming a real government—it is only supposed to be a transitional authority until a real government can be formed, but because of security issues and lack of Israeli and foreign support this has not yet happened.

*Because Jerusalem is within the West Bank, and part of it was captured during the Six-Day War (it had previously been shared by Israel and Palestine), most nations will not treat it as Israel’s capital, despite the fact that Israel claims it as such and has most of its government offices there.  Instead, most nations keep their embassies in other major cities, particularly the largest city in Israel, Tel-Aviv (Hill of Spring[time]).

*The Kurdish peoples of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria would also like to form a nation-state, Kurdistan, but have been repeatedly prevented from doing so by the countries in which they live.  However, in Iraq today, the Kurdish people of the North largely enjoy autonomous rule, and have made certain that federalism is an important part of the Iraqi constitution.

*The people of the Caucasus Mountains are also famous for their numerous ethnicities and their desire for their own nation-states.  Thus far, only Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan have achieved independence, but Chechnya, a Caucasian Moslem region in Russia, has engaged in repeated revolts and terrorist activities to try to win independence from Russia.  Other regions in the Caucasus have tried to do the same.

*Abkhazia and South Ossetia are two regions in Georgia that have declared their independence, and are largely autonomous, but are not recognised as independent states by the rest of the world.

*Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in western Azerbaijan that is largely inhabited by ethnic Armenians.  When they sought independence from Azerbaijan, the Armenian Army supported them, and now largely occupies the region, which claims to be an independent state, but is not recognised as such elsewhere.

*The most populous countries in the region are Egypt (69.8 million people), Turkey (66.3 million people), Iran (66.1 million), Algeria (31 million), Morocco (29.5 million people), Uzbekistan (25.1 million), Iraq (23.6 million), and Saudi Arabia (21.1 million).

*The least populous country is Qatar, with 600,000 people.

*The largest country in the region is Kazakhstan (2.7 million square miles, followed by Algeria (2.3 million square miles), Saudi Arabia (2.1 million square miles), Libya (1.7 million square miles), Iran (1.6 million square miles), Egypt (1 million square miles), and Turkey (774 thousand square miles).

*The smallest country is Bahrain, covering 689 square miles.

*The most productive countries are Saudi Arabia (GDP:  $250 billion per year), Iran (GDP:  $162 billion), and Israel ($117 billion).

*The poorest country is probably Tajikstan, with a GDP of about $2 million per year.

*Few of the countries in the region have truly democratic governments, although many claim to be republics.  Israel is an exception to this, and recent revolutions in several countries have replaced or tried to replace semi-elected rules with truly democratic governments:  Georgia did so in the Rose Revolution in 2003, Lebanon did so in the Cedar Revolution of 2005, and Kyrgyzstan did in the Tulip Revolution of 2005.  These were a series of bloodless (or mostly bloodless) popular uprisings against governments that, although elected in theory, were seen to be corrupt and had typically manipulated the electoral process to ensure their victories.  These revolutions are sometimes seen as part of a larger series of ‘colour revolutions’ that include the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia in 1989, an un-named revolution in Yugoslavia in 2000, and the Orange Revolution of the Ukraine in 2004.

*In theory, 17 states in the Middle East are republics (although many of them are not truly representative).  Iran is an Islamic republic, meaning that its government is elected, but is heavily influenced by the Shi’a leaders of that nation—and even those nations in the Middle East that do not describe themselves as Islamic Republics tend to have very influential Islamic communities.  Libya has a military dictator, Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qaddafi.  Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco have constitutional monarchies.  Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have traditional monarchies (which tend to be strongly Islamic, particularly in Saudi Arabia).  The United Arab Emirates have a federal monarchy, with seven emirs uniting to rule their lands together (with one land’s emir being the traditional president and another’s being the traditional vice president and prime minister). 

*At one point many more countries in the Middle East were kingdoms, but they had revolutions in the 1950s or 1970s (including Turkey (in 1923), Iraq, Tunisia, Iran, and Afghanistan).  Most of the central Asian republics were at one point Soviet Socialist Republics under the USSR, and have mostly been dominated by strongmen since, despite officially being republics.