I would say the current cycle of violence can be said to have begun after WWI and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. But there have been plenty more cycles of sectarian and tribal violence in the region over the centuries.
Yes. There are millenia of conflicts. There are millenia of conflicts around the globe. You get two groups of humans next to each other and they are going to start stabbing each other.
But it was normal (apologies for the negative connotations) tribal warfare. Different regions would fight other regions as both skirmishes and conquest. But it was largely when Westerners decided to draw up a bunch of maps with no willingness to understand the residents that we began the current cycles of horror. Because lets say you hate the Reds and the Reds hate you. But now? Now you live in a city with one Red and the rest of the Reds live in a city with one You. Eventually someone decides to do some ethnic cleansing which leads to retaliatory ethnic cleansing and more wars and so forth.
And, inevitably, warlords see an opportunity to gain power. Which leads to refugees which leads to ethnic cleansing which leads to…
I would say the current cycle of violence can be said to have begun after WWI and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. But there have been plenty more cycles of sectarian and tribal violence in the region over the centuries.
Yes. There are millenia of conflicts. There are millenia of conflicts around the globe. You get two groups of humans next to each other and they are going to start stabbing each other.
But it was normal (apologies for the negative connotations) tribal warfare. Different regions would fight other regions as both skirmishes and conquest. But it was largely when Westerners decided to draw up a bunch of maps with no willingness to understand the residents that we began the current cycles of horror. Because lets say you hate the Reds and the Reds hate you. But now? Now you live in a city with one Red and the rest of the Reds live in a city with one You. Eventually someone decides to do some ethnic cleansing which leads to retaliatory ethnic cleansing and more wars and so forth.
And, inevitably, warlords see an opportunity to gain power. Which leads to refugees which leads to ethnic cleansing which leads to…