All Countries In The Middle East

"What are all countries in the Middle East?"

There is no exact definition of the Middle East that is agreed upon by all people. Some core countries are always included as part of the Middle East, but there is disagreement about how far the region extends, and this is complicated by cultural, linguistic, and political considerations.



The nations always included as being part of the Middle East are Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran. So it can be said that the Middle East is approximately equivalent to Western Asia.

But some countries outside of Western Asia, or that straddle Western Asia and another continent/region, are often included in definitions of the Middle East. Egypt is one of the most commonly included. Most of Egypt's landmass is located in North Africa, but the Sinai Peninsula is in Western Asia, and geographically inseparable from Israel's Negev desert. Not only that, but Egypt is the cultural capital of the Arab world and has therefore had a large influence on the Arab cultures of the Middle East.

Also sometimes included is Turkey, which borders Syria, Iraq, and Iran. It has a Kurdish region that extends beyond the country's Eastern borders. And there is a minority of people speaking Turkic languages living in Iran. There is also an Arabic-speaking minority in southern Turkey. So Turkey has a lot of cultural connections to the Middle East. And 97% of the land mass of Turkey lies within Western Asia. However, most Turks themselves are likely to deny being Middle Eastern. The people of Turkey tend to think of themselves as part of Europe, even though only 3% of the country is in Europe. This is possibly because the main part of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is located in Europe (though the city straddles the two continents). And similar to the cultural overlap with the Middle East in southern and southeastern Turkey, there is much cultural overlap with Europe in western Turkey, as well as crossover with former Soviet republics in northeastern Turkey. These days Turkey tends to be left out of definitons of the Middle East more often than it used to be.

Some people include all the Arab countries of North Africa in their definitions of the Middle East, because of the linguistic and cultural conections between the Arab countries of Africa and Asia. Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morrocco are the most commonly cited. More rarely included are Sudan, Somalia, Western Sahara, and Mauritania.



Sometimes included as part of the Middle East but normally considered part of Central Asia, is Afganistan. Pakistan is also sometimes included in definitions of the Middle East, probably because people extend the boundaries of the Middle East
in every direction as far as Islamic countries stretch. Occasionally included in definitions of the Middle East are the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, such
as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. There are linguistic connections between these Central Asia countries and the Middle East, with Turkic languages (related to Turkish language spoken in Turkey) and Iranian languages (related to the Persian language spoken in Iran). Most, however, believe that this definition of the Middle East is a great stretch, and that these countries are outside of the Middle East.

The basic classification of the Middle East comes down to Western Asia, with other countries sometimes included because of religious, cultural, or political ties with the Western Asian countries always accepted as part of the Middle East.

This map showing the distribution of the Arabic language may shed some led on people's varying definitions.