Middle Eastern diplomacy during world war one has had a major lasting impact on the middle east into modern times. The Treaty of Sevres, although a failure, set up the boundaries and borders of the modern day middle east, along with the Treaty of Lausanne, and the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Treaty of Sevres has a lasting impact in turkey. It’s Called the Sevres Syndrome. Sevres syndrome has been used to describe things such as the Kurdish problem to the belief that the Armenian genocide is an anti-Turkish conspiracy theory and never actually happened. Some scholars would argue that the current instability in the middle east is thanks to the borders drawn by Europeans, rather than letting middle eastern countries define their own borders. Others argue that some of the instability is caused by a lack of a Kurdish state. Some other scholars argue that a Kurdish state would have been problematic because it would have been under full British control. The Kurdish problem is still a violent problem with Turkish leaders calling for the detention of Kurdish leaders and fighters.

A primary source of unrest in the modern day middle east is caused by lack of money and resources. When the borders were drawn up by the Europeans, they left several states without money or resources. A state cannot prosper without the proper resources.

If one looks at a map of the middle east, the borders tend to be straight lines. Straight lines make for uncomplicated borders. Their borders did not take into consideration ethnic differences, tribal relations, and other dividing factors. Many believe that if middle eastern countries had been able to draw their own borders, there would be little to no conflict today. Others argue that if the Europeans had let them draw their own borders, there would have been a power struggle and never an actual agreement.