Although the Middle East is used to denote a geographical region, it does not avoid some difficulties to clearly determine its borders. The first perception the word evokes is a piece of land stretching from east to west from Iran to Egypt, from north to south to Syria, from Iraq to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It can also be thought of as flanked by the Persian Gulf in the east and the Red Sea-Suez Canal in the west. Undoubtedly, the land area covered by the word or concept of the Middle East can be expanded by taking into account more closely and different elements. For example, Anatolia, the Caucasus region or the North Africa region. At that time, the approach of disciplines such as history, especially political history, stands out and assumes a determining function. For example, the historian Braudel defines the Mediterranean Sea as the geography from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean by giving a historical definition meaning. This definition seems to allow, in a sense, the starting point that constitutes the space of political history.
Indeed, the Middle East has been the place of the bloody power struggles that feed this specificity, and the emergence and collapse of politics. The Middle East has also become the place of religions, beliefs, cultures and civilizations where the essences and qualities that they have at the time of their emergence, if they spread to the environment, these essences and qualities completely differ. As such, it has created a period of time within itself, and has also contained its destroyer within itself. It attracted the formations (belief, thought, culture and civilization) that emerged in its surroundings, which it was a source or influenced to a great extent, like a magnet and distorted, decayed and destroyed. But it never stopped being the center of attraction.
A few days ago, an explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, better known than itself, evoking a hellish scene of an explosion even on television. Regardless of the guesses, discussions, comments caused by questions such as the cause of the explosion, who or who did it, it was striking. In the news, a request or wish was expressed in summary. It is this: Let Lebanon connect to France or France assume the administration of Lebanon. At first glance, although it may seem like an aphakic, random, outrageous word, the existence of its historical background has to be remembered in terms of the social, especially in Lebanon or Beirut, as such a word or request is considered as an expression of the social subconscious. Indeed, the first important commercial and political relations in the Ottoman Empire were established with France (1535 trade agreement). In addition, France became the state dealing with Christians living within the borders of the empire, especially Catholic Christians. Even before the empire was established and expanded, it had close relations with Catholics (Maronites) in France, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Some authors even argue that these relationships should be traced back to the Crusades. This relationship, which started during the First Crusade (1095-1098), is also recorded in a document during the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254). King of France IX. When Louis (Saint-Louis) first went to Cyprus during this expedition, he was very pleased with the help he received from the Maronites there, then in Palestine and Lebanon, and sent a letter to the clergymen with all Maronite orders, stating that the Maronites were part of the French nation. More importantly, on behalf of the French kings that came after him, he declared that they were placed under "French protectorate". The kings who came after him obey it from time to time. For example, in 1649, XIV. Louis XV in 1727. This has been confirmed by Louis. As a matter of fact, the first Catholic missionaries seen in the Ottoman Empire will be French priests and will find work areas in Syria and Lebanon. Of course, schools that will not be contented with missionary activities will also open institutions that will later spread the French language and culture. Many administrators who will work at various levels of the state, many writers who will be active in the field of thought and art-literature will be trained in French educational institutions. The sharing of the lands of the Ottoman Empire and the developments and events in the Middle East during the First World War are also an important issue to be examined.