THREATS OF SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Abstract

The article considers the situation in the Middle East and in particular the activities of the terrorist organization «Islamic State» (ISIS) in Syria. The author focuses on the crisis situation in Syria and what direct impact it had on the Syrian Armenians and on their cultural heritage, what is the indirect impact of the crisis on the Republic of Armenia. Stressing the efforts of the international community to establish peace in the Middle East, the author summarized speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan at the conference about «Victims of ethnic and religious violence in the Middle East» in Madrid. The article also presented a possible deterioration of the situation in the Middle East in the case of a referendum on independence in the Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.