Or is it just yet another turn of what has happened before in other eras?
Well, Enola, I am a Christian, and while there are alternative theories I am inclined to believe in the End Times interpretation of prophecy.
My answer to your question would have to be "who knows? God knows."
I don't.
There's a passage of scripture referred to as "the character of the Age" that goes: "There shall be wars, and rumors of wars, and earthquakes and famines in diverse places..." and concludes "but the end is not yet."
Many people mistakenly think this is a list of "signs of the End", but it is actually a list of things that "just are" and are not to be worried about.
Assuming the standard Evangelical model of the End Times is correct, which I tend to follow myself, it is easy to look at any kind of unrest in the Middle East as troubling.... but then again the middle east is almost ALWAYS troubled in one sense or another, it isn't exactly a stable region and never really has been.
Over time I've taken the attitude that the prophecy will be fulfilled and this Age come to its end, "Whenever". A few possible exceptions aside, I do not believe it is possible for anyone to accurately predict whether the End of the Age is "near" or not... indeed the Bible says "of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels in Heaven, but the Father only."
Any expressions to the contrary are merely personal opinion.
So in brief, my answer is "
possibly yes, but probably not."