Yesterday (with FZ) at FL360, I flew up the entire length of the river Tigris, albeit mostly along the eastern flank of the river (UL602 & UM860 then crossing into Turkish airspace at waypoint KABAN) which was the route as filed by the company... and there were numerous other UAE / GCC airlines utilising that exact same routing too... and, needless to say, a number of the passengers were far from happy about it, but what to do ?!