barneystinson69 said:
Ummm... Arab countries are those that speak mainly arabic. So Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia are all non-arab countries even though they are middle eastern. So why would Turkey become more Arab if they speak their own language? |
I find that interesting as well. I was born in Iran and when I first arrived in Canada, I did notice a good deal of people refer to me as Arab when I described my origin (as opposed to Persian). My guess is that the generalization is made because the major religion that is practiced in Iran (although even then it is a different variation of the one practiced in other Arab countries) and the geographic location, otherwise the cultures are quite difference. In fact, I have had co-workers from Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq, and they speak Arabic (hence they could be described as Arabic), but I was surprised by the degree of difference in their cultures as well. But then again, I cannot fault people for the misconception, I had friends in high school that traveled Asia and Europe and many people believed they were from the US despite all of them being Canadian.
