Ethnic groups in the Middle East, in the 'transcontinental' region which is commonly a geopolitical term designating the intercontinental region comprising West Asia (including Cyprus) without the South Caucasus,[1] and also comprising Egypt in North Africa. The region has historically been a crossroad of different cultures and languages.[2] Since the 1960s, the changes in political and economic factors (especially the enormous oil wealth in the region and conflicts) have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently through immigration. The largest socioethnic groups in the region are Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azerbaijanis[3] but there are dozens of other ethnic groups that have hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of members.
Other indigenous, religious, or minority ethnic groups include: Armenians, Assyrians, Arameans in the Qalamoun Mountains,[4][5][6][7][8][9] Baloch, Copts, Cypriots, Druze, Gilaks, Greeks, Jews, Kawliya, Kurds, Laz, Lurs, Mandaeans, Maronites, Mazanderanis, Mhallami, Nawar, Palestinians, Pontic Greeks, Rūm Christians, Samaritans, Shabaks, Talysh, Tats, Yazidis and Zazas.
Diaspora ethnic groups living in the region include: Albanians, Bengalis, Britons, Bosniaks, Chinese, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Jews, Filipinos, French people, Georgians, Indians, Indonesians, Kawliya, Italians, Malays, Malayali, Pakistanis, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Romanians, Romani, Serbs, Sikhs, Sindhis, Somalis, Sri Lankans, Turkmens, and Sub-Saharan Africans.
