Article on Middle East topic (5)
I believe the answer is:
theme
'topic' is the definition.
(I know that topic can be written as theme)
'article on middle east' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'middle east' becomes 'me' (abbreviation for Middle East).
'the'+'me'='THEME'
(Other definitions for theme that I've seen before include "Subject set for discussion" , "Melody on which variations are constructed" , "Subject (on which person writes, speaks)" , "Leitmotiv" , "Recurrent unifying idea" .)