{
  "id": 7822316,
  "title": "The Atrocities That Shaped the Modern Middle East",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/the-atrocities-that-shaped-the-modern-middle-east",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-16T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/09/david-frum-show-simon-sebag-montefiore-middle-east/688646/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic's David Frum welcomes historian Simon Sebag Montefiore to discuss his new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. The book explores the transformation of the Middle East from the reign of the Ottoman Empire to the current state of divided nations.\n\nDavid Frum and Montefiore discuss how various language and religious groups were systematically pushed into exile or eliminated throughout history. One example highlighted is the 2014 attack by ISIS on the Yazidi minority in northwest Iraq, where around 3,000 to 5,000 Yazidis were murdered, mostly men and older women, while 6,800 women and girls were taken as sexual slaves. The Yazidi community, which numbered about 600,000 at the time, saw 400,000 of its members driven into exile, many of whom have never returned to their homes.\n\nThe Yazidi genocide was explicitly aimed at eradicating the Yazidi people, as ISIS considered them devil worshippers due to their non-Islamic beliefs. While the story initially garnered significant attention, it has since faded from memory as people in the West have shifted their focus to other conflicts, such as the Hamas war in October 2023. This shift in focus may be attributed to the prevailing views on the Middle East, where Arab nationalism and Islamic identity are seen as progressive, while other cultural and religious groups are viewed as backward and undesirable.\n\nThroughout the discussion, the duo delve into the atrocities and attempted genocides that have plagued the region, including the massacres of Assyrian Christians in Iraq, the displacement of Egypt's Christian population, the Armenian genocide, the suffering of the Kurds, and the destruction of ancient Jewish communities. These events, as well as the forced migration of Jews to Israel, have all contributed to the complex and troubled history of the modern Middle East, marked by a pattern of violence, displacement, and the attempted eradication of various groups.",
  "summary": "The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore on his latest book, The Cauldron , and how violence forged the modern Middle East",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}