Israel is the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”?

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10 Apr 2018, 6:58 am

The first time saw this statement was here on WP, also heard it from American politicians, who invents these false statements?
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/?icid=hjx004

There are at least 3 Middle-Eastern countries which are democratic (despite its flaws but which country doesn't?) other than Israel that they seem to always forget: Turkey, Cyprus, and Lebanon.

Also Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Tunisia (if you consider it Middle-eastern anyway) are newly democratic.

Tim_Tex
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10 Apr 2018, 7:09 am

What about Egypt and Palestine?

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Daniel89
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10 Apr 2018, 7:10 am

Cyprus is considered European culturally, in the same way the canary islands are not African but Spanish.

Turkey is heading backwards, I don't know too much about Lebanon.

naturalplastic
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10 Apr 2018, 7:28 am

Imagine if the US had its own Pope of American Christianity, and that this Pope had veto power over both the president and over both houses of Congress. That's the situation in post Shah Iran. As I understand it. They have the machinery of democracy in place, and have the potential to be a true democratic republic, but for now can only function as a theocratic dictatorship. In contrast our buddies the Saudies don't even pretend to be democratic, and are one of the few remaining absolute monarchies.

The_Face_of_Boo
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10 Apr 2018, 8:17 am

Daniel89 wrote:

Cyprus is considered European culturally

And Israel isn't??

Daniel89
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10 Apr 2018, 8:21 am

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Cyprus is considered European culturally

And Israel isn't??

Not really, I wouldn't say they were European they are quite backwards from my understanding.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:29 am

Daniel89 wrote:

Turkey is heading backwards,.

Erdogan is not a dictator by definition, only by the way he acts - but he's still a democratically elected president.

Quote:

I don't know too much about Lebanon

It's a Parliamentary system, 128 members of Parliament are directly elected by the people - seats are allocated per religious communities, in sum 60 members are Muslims and 60 are Christians (and each is sub-divided to sects); then the Parliament elects a President (who must be a Maronite Christian). Now, some may consider the sectarian allocation of seats undemocratic but it's part of the constitution which everyone agreed on, and it's the only way to secure minorities.

Drake
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10 Apr 2018, 8:32 am

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Daniel89
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10 Apr 2018, 8:38 am

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Turkey is heading backwards,.

Erdogan is not a dictator by definition, only by the way he acts - but he's still a democratically elected president.

Quote:

I don't know too much about Lebanon

Erdogan is like Putin where you control the press to the point that you guarantee a win.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:39 am

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Last I checked, Cyprus and Turkey are considered Middle-Eastern geographically (part of the Middle-Eastern territory); Cyprus is just politically/culuturally European since it joined the EU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ea ... nd_regions

You're right about Tunisia for sure, Egypt is the only African country which is considered part of the ME.

Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 10 Apr 2018, 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

naturalplastic
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10 Apr 2018, 8:39 am

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Turkey is very much part of Asia, and not Europe. In fact the very word "Asia" originally meant onlythe landmass now called Turkey.

Daniel89
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10 Apr 2018, 8:40 am

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:41 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Turkey is very much part of Asia, and not Europe. In fact the very word "Asia" originally meant onlythe landmass now called Turkey.

Anatolia means Asia Minor.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:45 am

naturalplastic wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Turkey is very much part of Asia, and not Europe. In fact the very word "Asia" originally meant onlythe landmass now called Turkey.

Turkey is in both Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the only city in the world that crosses two continents.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:46 am

Daniel89 wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

Pakistan is hardly part of Middle-East, you're probably confusing with the "Greater Middle East" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East

Which is a recent political term. 'Europe' and 'Asia' are also political terms, both are the same land mass.

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10 Apr 2018, 8:52 am

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:

Daniel89 wrote:

Drake wrote:

Lebanon and Iraq are the only ones mentioned that are middle East. Turkey and Cyprus are European, Egypt and Tunisia are African, Palestine and Iraqi Kurdistan aren't countries.

Middle east is a term that essentially means Muslim, it includes Western Asia and North Africa but also Pakistan. In reality there is no such thing as middle eastern.

They are the same land mass but the tectonic plates determine what continent they are part of.

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Israel is the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”?