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There is a lot of identity politics -- it's true the world over (just the West likes to pretend it's so "19th century")

The Turks (who aren't really Turkic by blood :-P ) idealize pan-Turkism linking themselves to Azeris (who are mostly Irani by blood) to Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Uighurs and the various Turkic groups in Russia and China (not to mention the Gagauz in Moldova), then you have the pan-Arabism and Iran's reaching out to Irani peoples

Then you have the pan-Shia movement (linking such groups as Twelvers, Alevis, Zayidis (Yemen), Bori, Ismaili etc. with dubious Shias (well dubious Moslem as well) groups like the Alawis or Druze) versus the Sunni ummah

And the Russian and Chinese moves at the same.

identity politics never left us...