“For history minded fellow Freepers, the history of this area was seriously disrupted by the Sykes-Picot Treaty between France and Great Britain after WWI. “
We look back and the shape of things to come is clear to us. But to Britain and France the lands they carved up were wild lands populated by tribes of people who stoned women and sold slaves. It wasn’t worth the time of the people who led empires to figure out the Byzantian intricacies of powerless people when all they had to do was Christianize them and bring them civilization. (Churchill’s world view.)
I don’t believe the colonial powers accidentally drew the maps in such a way that .. oops! .. it left all their former colonies in perpetual instability. Yes they were tribal but the Brits and the French etc knew which tribes hated which and in far too many instances to be coincidences they drew the borders to put them together. I believe it was a cynical strategy to cause permanent instability that would allow them to maintain control over lost colonies. Your mileage may vary.