It would be better if the Ottoman Empire still ruled the Middle East.

I welcome my oppponent to this debate. Now lets get started. 1. What It Possessed First off the Middle East is in chaos and the US and NATO were forced to enter areas such as Iraq and have to intervene a lot in Israel and its wars. Other issues such as Iran and revolution in Egypt are also critical in this time. However, before all this chaos started the Ottoman Empire unified the Middle East. As I have said I am specifically supporting its pre-World War 1 borders before that war started. The Ottomans ruled over Iraq and maybe we would had not needed to enter the country if the empire still existed today. The Ottomans also owned places like Palestine where there is chaos also. This is my first reason I believe the empire should still exist because it controlled some areas we are stuck in today. (1) 2. Its Relations With the West Today relations with the Middle East could be better, but the Ottomans held a great relationship with Europe specifically. Bear in mind that the Ottoman Empire helped some European powers in World War 1. Even before the alliance was made, Allied Powers like Great Britain and France also got a lot of interest from the Ottomans to make an alliance. It was allied with Germany and it had close relations with Austria-Hungary and Italy which were part of Germany's Triple Alliance before the war. Not to mention Turkey (which was the heart of the empire before it was broken up) today is a viable candidate to be in the EU. This shows that Europe and the Ottoman Empire do hold some close relations. The economic growth of Turkey will help the EU even more at this time. (2,3) 3. Open to Religion Yes the Ottoman Empire was open to religion. Now most of you might say "WTF what about the Armenian Genocide you twat!" and to that I will present you with some knowledge. The Armenian Crisis mainly was caused by a series of coups on the government, various policies such as taxes, World War 1, and the emotions of various Ottoman people and leaders. The Ottoman Empire started treating Christians and Jews as their intellectual equals in the 1860s and this continued to progress over time. Great Britain, France, and Russia had intervened in several instances over issues with the Armenians and the Ottomans and the Ottoman Empire did negotiate with the three countries. Anyway the first tension was caused by Ottoman officials and not the entire government to be exact. Tension rose when various Ottoman officials raised taxes on the Armenians causing some fighting. However, as time went on things got better for them with the first coup knows as the Young Turk Revolution and the formation of a constitutional monarchy. Incidents building up to World War 1 were due to Islamic militants on Armenians. However, the government was not in favor ofr massacre at the time which if you compare that to Palestine today the Ottomans seems to tolerate others better. When World War 1 did break out the Armenians moved to various places, but could not escape the blooshed specifically with the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire during the war. Most issues were caused by the war minister at the time, Enver Pasha. The Ottoman military officials were also scared of a revolt by the Armenians. After thwat would be when hysteria happened by Ottoman officials eventually too much for the government to handle. The government made mistakes however such as the orders for deportation and such, but the government was corruptebly run by three man known as the "Three Pashas" which were mainly responsible for the deaths of these Armenians. Also, its not like the Turkish today are proud of this like the Germans are not proud of the holocaust. The facts are that every nation has its dark days even the United States. We still progress and make things better. Besides that Turks were Muslims and were tolerant of other religions because of that. From its beginnings Islam had accepted the existence of other monotheistic religions. Jews and Christians had lived in -lands ruled by Islam since the time of the prophet Muhammad. (4, 5) 4. Keeping Iran in Check The Ottoman Empire and the Perisan Empire were not perfect with each other. They had been in several wars. Today the Persian Empire is now Iran. I believe that the Ottomans would be concerened with Iran today especially with their chance of gaining a nuclear weapon. 1. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk... 2. http://en.wikipedia.org... 3. http://www.todayszaman.com... 4. http://en.wikipedia.org... 5. http://www.globaled.org... 6. http://en.wikipedia.org...