Michelle Dupray

12-8-09

Central and Southwest Asia

Webquest

• The region is plagued by Arab-Israeli conflicts, terrorism,

and wars with Iraq.

• The countries that define the Middle East are Cyprus,

Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza,
Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabi, Yemen, Oman, United Arab
Emirate, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, and Libya.

• There are tensions between Israel and the Arabs because

of their conflicts between political, strategic, and economic
interests over power.

• The country that was the largest supplier of weapons to

Iraq during the Iran-Iranq War was the Soviet Union.

• The name of the Iraqi president during the First Persian

Gulf War was Saddam Hussein.

• Hussein accused Kuwait of pumping oil on from Iraq

without permission, which lead to the start of the war.

• The Iraqi president was captured and convicted in 2004.

• The name of the sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is

the Red Sea.

• The name of the sea north of Turkey is the Black Sea.

• The name of the sea north of Iran is the Caspian Sea.

• The name of the sea west of Israel is the Mediterranean

Sea.

• The name of the sea south of Oman is the Arabian Sea.

• Using the map’s distance indicator, Jerusalem is about 40

miles from Nazareth.
• Jerusalem is about 55 miles from Egypt (using the map’s
distance indicator).

• The major international dispute in Israel is the Israeli

people living West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• The symbol in the middle of the Israeli flag represents the

Star of David, also known as “the Jewish Star”.

• There are tensions between Israel and the Palestinians is

because when Israel became a nation again, most of the
Arabs went to join Israel.

• The Dead Sea is 1349 feet below sea level.

• Saudi Arabia’s neighboring countries are Iran, Iraq, Syria,

Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman, and
the United Arab Emirate.

• Duba is approximately 190 miles from Egypt.

• Saudi Arabia’s government was monarchy until 1992, and

then the Islamic law (or “sharia”) was put into affect.

• Saudi Arabia made financial contributions to Iraq during

the Iran-Iraq War because they were afraid that if Iran won
over Iraq, they would become the next target.

• The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist movement.

• Kuwait is bordered by Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

• By examining the map, I think that access to water would

be Kuwait’s economic strength.

• The official languages spoken in Kuwait are Arabic and

English.

• The main religion of Kuwait is Islam.

• Iraq invaded Kuwait because Saddam Hussein blamed

Kuwait for the falling oil prices. Hussein thought that
Kuwait was taking oil from Iraq.
• The date women voted for the first time in Kuwait was in
1999.

• Turkey is north of Israel.

• Istanbul is located in the northwestern part of Turkey.

• Turkey announced war in World Was II, but they did not
take part in the war actively. I think this is because in
World War I, Turkey sided with Germany, but lost some of
their territory in the process.

• The Kurds are a type of people living in Turkey.

• Two interesting facts of the Kuridsh Culture are that 20% of

Turkey’s population is Kurds and there are around 12
million Kurds living in Turkey.

• The tragedy that happened on August 17th, 1999 was a 7.4

magnitude earthquake.

• The major trading partners of Turkey are Germany, the

U.K., the U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Russia, and China.