OLLI Workshop: History of the Middle East

Leader: Theo Pavlidis (t.pavlidis@ieee.org)

Handout No. 4 - April 9, 2012

Map of the End of the Ottoman Empire

Source http://www.britannica.com/bps/media-view/679/0/0/0 Notes: (1) Cyrenaica is today's Libya; (2) In 1919 Greek forces landed in Smyrna and advanced as far as the Sakarya river before being driven back in 1922.

Key Point: The Arab countries were under Ottoman rule until WW-I; The Balkan countries (except for small fragments) were under Ottoman rule until 1878 and some parts (Albania, Northern Greece, etc) until 1913. People over 60 years old in that region have parents or grandparents who grew up under Ottoman rule. It takes many generations for certain social attitudes to change, therefore the Balkans and the Middle East stiff suffer from an Ottoman hang-over.