Iran and its neighbours
Placed on East-West crossroad, Iran has for long, remained a melting pot of two great civilizations. The saying that Iranians are the “Frenchmen of the East” is not misplaced.
To her west are the lands of the Semitic people – Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan – and to her north and east lie the lands of Indo-Iranian branch of Aryans – Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thus Iran is a buffer of sorts between two major races on the earth.
Not only that, Iran itself is a mosaic of ethnicities, a factor that adds colour and brightness to her rich heritage. She has ethnic Baluch and Arabs in the south, Azeris and Kurds in the north, Aryan-Semitic mixed race to the west bordering on Iraq, and Farsi-Turkmen speaking groups to her northwest. Nevertheless, these ethnic, racial or linguistic diversities are no hindrance to the national identity of her people as Iranians.
To her west, Iran has a long common border with Iraq, an Arab state with a majority of Shia Muslims. The populace on the border area is culturally, and to some extent linguistically, mixed so as to give the land the name of Iraq-e-Ajam meaning Iraq-Iran.