The modern conception of sovereign states that people seem to think is some ancient invariant is actually the result of the Peace of Westphalia and the Congress of Vienna. The post colonial borders were shaped by that understanding.

Do people who grew up in former Ottoman territory have the same conception? Within that empire the idea of nation was quite different.

I hadn't seen that abbreviation before, but it's apparently this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_be_upon_him