And French is still language of educated class in some places in Levant, esp. Liban.
replyWhen I lived in Tehran in the late '70s people said "merci" to express thanks.
replyThey still do.
replyYes, it's kind of the standard word for it in Iranian Persian
replyArmenia as well
replyyup. shnorhakalutyun is a bit of mouthful :)
replyA more recent influence came from the Sykes-Picot Agreement [1].
reply[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
Yes, but there are more. For example, French engineers built the Suez Canal.
reply