NationMaster - Discussion

Laura 16th July 2009	I totally agree with Astrid! He's so hot, i want to make out with him
Avery Harry Long-Weiner 8th December 2005	How can anyone demote Greece, Italian, Albania, and Malta to European countries when in reality they have more in common with the Middle East in terms of history, culture, music, and physical or racial features?
Maryssa 21st November 2005	You guys, Greek is more or less Middle Eastern. We have our own type of debkeh, pitas, water-pipes, etc. Plus we eat a lot of lamb! MOST OBVIOUS CONNECTION.
Vivian 11th November 2005	I think your website is good. You have all the info needed for my project! I come here and I can find all the stuff I need. I do think your website needs a little more spark. Here is an example more color so when people come here they would like the color you put on your website! And they would love to come back. Every thing else is perfect!
BDC 10th November 2005	When discussing the question of which nations qualify as Middle Eastern, the fact to be kept in mind throughout is that the Middle East is a culturally-and not merely territorially-defined region. As a result, questions inevitably arise with regard to whether or not a particular nation which lies on the outskirts of the territorially defined Middle East should actually be considered to be a part of the Middle East. Some examples of nations which, although not lying in the heart of the Middle East (i.e. the Arabian Peninsula), nonetheless lie within the region and share significant cultural points of affinity, are Turkey (which is herein defined as Middle Eastern), Iran (herein defined as Middle Eastern), Armernia and Greece. Indeed, the Turks, Persians, Armenians and Greeks are all very distinct ethno-cultural groups, each with their own unique and ancient histories. However, it may also be said of these nations/peoples that, when viewed from an overall regional-cultural-historical perspective, all four form important pieces of the rich mosaic that is the Middle East. Therefore, they may all reasonably be called Middle Eastern. In the case of Armenia, it is culturally and ethnically more aligned with the Middle East than it is with Asia and the Caucuses, where it lies regionally. Of course, this is partly due to the Armenian diaspora, which, over a period of thousands of years, has seen the creation of a great many Armenian settlements in Middle Eastern nations such as Syria/Lebanon to its southwest and Iran to its southeast. A similar case may be made for Greece, which is culturally and ethnically more aligned with the Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Turkey) and the Levant (Lebanon, Syria) than it is with the Balkan Peninsula and Eastern Europe. Again, this is partly due to the Greek diaspora which, since ancient times, has, for reasons of economics (Near East trade routes) and empire (Hellenic conquest), witnessed the spread of Greek culture and settlements eastward, from Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon) to Iran (ancient Persia). Is Armenia part of Asia? Yes; but it is also part of the Middle East. Is Greece part of Europe? Of course; but it is ALSO part of the Middle East. Please feel free to comment on what I have written, as I'm sure there will be some disagreement.
moe h 20th October 2005	I am from Palestine and Philistine is a part of the middle east and i think that it was always Palestine and always will be Arabs for life.
edmon 18th October 2005	Iam looking for the name of the queen of cortaja. or help me to find which queen her name was allysar please e-mail me at edmonnhh@aol.com
Mat 18th October 2005	Could you include ancient places like Mesopotamia or Ancient India, Ancient China, Ancient Egypt ect. ?
Marie Parker 16th October 2005	What countries make up the middle East?
Hiba 14th October 2005	‘Sahara’ means desert. Sounds terribly repetitious when Western people say Sahara Desert – ‘Desert Desert’ to Arabic speakers. Arabs describe the camel as ‘Safinat Sahara’ or ‘Ship of the Desert’ for its ability to cross the great seas of sand. By the way, there are two types of camels; Bactrian (2 humps) found in the Far East (China, Mongolia) and the Dromedary (1 hump) native to Africa, the Middle East, and the Asian Subcontinent (Pakistan, India, etc). I hope I never see another ignorant Hollywood generated image of Arabs with Bactrian camels. The ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ is another repetitious term. Gibraltar is from the Arabic ‘Jabal Tariq’ or ‘Tariq’s Mountain’. ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ is ‘Rock of Tariq’s Mountain’ to Arabic speakers. Rather demeaning to reduce a mountain to a mere rock.
al 9th October 2005	What are peoples views on whether Sudan is a part of the middle east or not? The similarities between the other countries such as Saudi, Yemen, etc are religion, language, cultural aspects, and to some extent geographic.
neset 22nd September 2005	We have historical connections with Balkans, Middle East and the middle Asia even with china. from Wien to Chinese wall we were living around and still live. we Turks are not European or Asian or Middle East. We just in the middle of three big continents.Just like a bridge.. And i believe we mustn't enter to Old European Union:).waiting 10-15 years will be enough to eyewitness to the collapse of this old building.
nomi 13th September 2005	'SAHARA' means a desert.
Reza 25th August 2005	The middle east is part of southwestern Asia. Egypt is only politically part of middle east but geographically its in Africa. Because the Egyptian population are mostly Arabs they rather belong to Middle east. There are many ways to define geographical boundaries. Arab countries for example are different in many ways from other Asian countries and should be regarded simply as middle east. those differences are that they all gain their independence in the 20th century, they all speak one language(Arabic)except Israel, they have no other culture than what comes from Islam, Their basic food is Bread where rest of Asia eats mostly rice. its the only area with no earthquakes and is mostly flatland, exception when closing the turkish or Iran border. So Only Arab countries should be regarded as middle east.
geogre 14th August 2005	Turkey is apart of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Like Egypt is apart of Africa and the Middle East. Middle East does not mean that all it's part have to be in Asia. It is a region not a continent.
klartex 1st August 2005	WR to Johathan's post, nothing wrong with Turkey's desire to being part of EU, which triggers democracy and good governance , which is also a must for stable and peaceful region. Like it or not, Turks had governed and influenced Eastern European for thousand years through Hun and Ottoman empires. Today's reality -both economic and real politics - forces nations to form into pacts and unions. Turkey will find its place, sooner or later. Alternative to EU is a form of unionism with Islamic countries or Russia. Considering its population, economic status, natural resources, military power, and racial ties with other minor post Soviet Russian countries (i.e. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan etc), I personally prefer Turkey to be part of EU as being a strong ally. Turkey's realities are different than Finland or any other wealthy Western EU countries due to its location/historical development. What would Danish do if they had neighbours like Iraq, Iran and Syria? There are too many factors exist today that prevent Turks to have so called non-EU standards, but their will and efforts should be recognized. Yes there are problems but there also solutions. Your bias prevents many of you to judge the situation with rational evaluation.
Erica 19th July 2005	Would it make sense to say that Pakistan is in Asia, and Afghanistan is in the Middle East? I am trying to decide (IF we put a region-of-origin tag on the folktales in our library) which countries belong in which regions.
Oscar 15th July 2005	Just because Turkish borrows a couple of words from Persian and some of their culture, it does not mean they have deep ties to the Middle East. Like Hungarians, Turks come from Central Asia and so their languages have common roots. Greeks have a longer history with the Persians which goes back to around Alexander the Great's time. Like Greek, Persian is a Indo-European language and in addition, Greek contains plenty of Persian vocab. Greece above all has a deeper ties to the Middle East. The Kalash people are Greeks, as they say they are, and have lived around Northern Pakistan long before Jesus and the Turkish invasions into Europe and the Middle East.
janissary 11th July 2005	In response to jonathan:EU is not a continental union.It was founded as economic union and then it became the EU.Religion is not a problem I think because EU is not a CRUSADER club!I don't know your nationality but you seem to be Austrian or Greek.Because you're frightened of Turkey's great power and you think that Turkey will assimilate all of the Europe.Turkish cities in Europe is greater than Luxembourg,Malta and Liechtenstein and and your contradictive thought is to be refuted.You have failed...We know the countries know the human rights.They have been coshing the students.And they give shelters to global terrorists...Is it an enough reply to your message?
collounsbury 6th July 2005	The translation of Sahara (or Sahra) is "Desert" The Sahara, in Arabic, is as-Sahra al-Kubraa, essentially "The Biggest Desert" In re Turkey: all geographical boundaries are essentially constructs. Europe, what is Europe? What is Asia minor? In terms of land mass, Eurasia is a single unit. Turkish language and culture have a lot of different ties, yes deep ones to the Middle East, but also into the Balkans. Indeed most Turks in Turkey are as much Turkised pre-Turkish Greek and Hellenised inhabitants as actual Turks. The remainder of the comment is a current politics driven rant. I note Cyprus was admitted, by the way, and by any geographic measure it is zero percent in geologic Europe. As is Malta. On Malta, the language is in fact an Arabic dialect with a heavy admixture of Italian and some degree of English. Having spoken with Maltese, I find Tunisia dialect is really quite close. I would not call Maltese unique (similar forms arose in Spain, etc), I might add, but certainly interesting.
nOStradamus 5th July 2005	Israel is the best from all this countries...the most educated country!
Oscar 5th July 2005	In response to jonathan: Turkey belongs in the E.U. because like most of Europe, they borrowed a lot from the Greeks and Persians. Turkish has greater linguistic ties with Hungarian and Finnish than with Indo-European and Semitic languages. Ask even a Hungarian for that matter. Maltese has linguistic ties with Arabic and Latin, which makes their language unique.
jonathan 1st July 2005	Turkey isn't part of the middle east, its ONLY 3% in Europe. It is located in Asia Minor, so it is considered West Asia. I strongly disagree with a-rab. The turkish culture AND language has closer ties with the Middle East compared to Europe. Turkey is almost ALL muslim, religion is important to muslims, nearly all of the middle east if muslim, therefore Turkey is more affiliated with the Middle East. I strongly disagree that Turkey should be in the E.U. as it is only THREE PERCENT in Turkey, which doesn't make sense. Turkey is a E.U. Member wanna-be who hopefully will never get in. They're human rights records are horrendous and need to get a reality check. Turkey is too corrupt and unorganized to handle the Europion Union. Turkey will go down and drag Europe with it. Please reply im in the mood to debate. ;)
Center 29th June 2005	How come Saudi Arabia is the center of the world?
collounsbury 23rd June 2005	Some Turks are asiatic looking, a majority in the West of Turkey are not. Not surprising as.... drum roll... Turk is an ethnic identity and just like Arab, has seen all kinds of people assimilate. Same for Arabs, taking Arab to mean someone who self idents as an Arab and speaks Arabic (a dialect thereof) as his mothertongue, you have the gamut of physical types. The posturing supra re "racially" different is utterly without proper basis at all. As for the Israeli commentator questioning the "nation" of Palestine, well it has long been the case that nations "emerge" well before a state (the terms not being synonymous) does. See, e.g. the evolution of the emergence of Czechoslovak identity in the 19th century. (Silly questions re status by the way, the answers would redound agains the point).
janissary 22nd June 2005	In response to Hebrewtext:The area is called Palestine since the Prophet Mohammed's Empire.Then Ottomans conquered there and continued to name the place containin Port Said,Jerusalem,Tel Aviv,etc. as Palestine.It took the Israel name in 1948.
Geo_student 20th June 2005	What is the translation on the word "Sahara"?
Av 18th June 2005	What's the national currency of "Palestine"? Where is its embassy in United States? What's its status in the UN? Where is a map from a credible source that defines it's internationally recognized final borders? When did it become a nation? Please provide some facts on the "Nation of Palestine".
KORAY 13th June 2005	TURKEY IS ABOUT TO START NEGOTIATIONS WITH EU TO BE A MEMBER IN SOME YEARS SO IT WILL MAKE SENSE TO HAVE IT BE IN EUROPE SECTION
A-rab 9th June 2005	In terms of linguistics and culture, Turkey is and has always been far more connected to Europe. We are even racially different than then Turks, considering they are of Mongolian origin, just like Hungarians, and northern European people such as Slavs and Teutons.
A-rab 9th June 2005	Mongoloid people like Turks and northern Europeans definitely look physically different from we Arabs. I don't want to sound racist but it is the truth.
Collounsbury 7th June 2005	Whether Turks look Middle Eastern or not (Turks vary quite a lot physically) is quite irrelevant. Lots of Middle Eastern Arabs don't "look" Middle Eastern. Turkey historically was far more connected with the Middle East than Europe, but regardless, since Attaturk has been more Europe oriented than not. Given divergence, it makes sense to take it apart.
� 26th May 2005	Turkey is part of Southeast Europe. Not the Middle East. Turks don't even look Middle Eastern.
dina 25th May 2005	The Palestinian flag is exactly like the Jordanian flag but without the star in the middle. And as for Egypt, it IS a part of the Middle East! Thanks.
collounsbury 21st May 2005	Egypt and the Maghreb states being on the African continent is not relevant to putting them in the Middle East. The Middle East is not a continent bound analytical construct, but rather a combined geographical and cultural unit. Indeed in terms of Middle East definitions for analytical purposes it makes far more sense to drop Turkey and add Egypt.
Collounsbury 20th May 2005	Political motivations are in the eye of the beholder. Egypt may be in "North Africa" by accident of continents, however its general ties are quite clearly most intense on social and economic bases with the 'classic Middle East.' History alone argues for including Egypt within the Middle East. This compared with Libya through to Morocco, the Arab Maghreb as the term goes frequently in Arabic, also makes sense as a unit (admittedly Libya could go either way). In the end any such division will be moderately arbitrary as well as subject to nit-picking on detials due to political agendas (or just plain wrong-headedness). See supra on the silly bickering over Israel and Palestine. As if it mattered in an objective sense that several thousand years ago a state named X existed in terms of modern boundaries and political divisions (the answer being quite clearly except to the partisans, it does not).
Cyrus Hayat 16th May 2005	We need to look carefully at the politically motivated naming systems that do not make sense. Egypt clearly is located in North Africa. There are some organizations that wrongly defined the Middle East as large as the Sub-Sahara in West Africa to Uzbekistan in Central Asia! It seems that they have invented a new continent. The Middle East!
Ian 15th May 2005	Those of you looking for Afghanistan can find it under Asia, since Afghanistan is in no way part of the Middle East. Also, why is the Palestinian flag not posted next to Gaza Strip and West Bank? All the other countries have their flags. The Palestinian people have been overlooked and slighted for far too long.
Hebrewtext 15th May 2005	In response to "Muslim" - Israel is the name of that land in use for some 3500 years by the Jews, and is written in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. From the 9th till 6th century BC an independent political entity existed - the kingdom of Israel, a neighbour to the kingdom of Judea, both of which were Jewish. On Palestine - 2000 years ago the Roman empire changed the name of the occupied Judea to Palestine. Although Jews around the world kept calling that land the land of Israel. The name "Palestine" entered the European languages from Latin and from these languages to modern politics (the British mandate over Palestine since 1917). "Palestine" as a sovereign independent entity never existed in history.
Typsi 14th May 2005	In response to 'Muslim' - most of Palestine (the West Bank) is landlocked inside of Israel. You are right however, Palestine should be added in this section.
Collounsbury 5th May 2005	Regarding the assertion re Iran - Persia not being (and never having been part of) the Middle East, that is quite simply false. Most definitions of the Middle East (there is no fixed definition of course) include Iran by default if nothing else. The assertion regarding connexion with Ottoman Empire and Great Britian is completely baseless or idiosyncratic. I suppose this is tied to the Persian centered complex re assoc. with Arab region. Regarding common usage current usage, I refer you to the World Bank. On the non-inclusion of North African countries, it seems a valid choice if a bit idiosyncratic since most econommic and sociological statistical treatments opt for the MENA (Middle East - North Africa) region as an analytical unit, with that region including the Arab states plus Iran. Sometimes thrown in is Turkey but usually not.
Cyrus Hayat 26th April 2005	Iran/Persia has never and is not a part of the Middle East. Middle East refers to the area under the Ottoman empire and bordered the Eastern/Persian Empire before WWI and became independent of the Great Britain. Those countries are Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Isreal/Palestine, and Arabian Pennsula (including the Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar...).
Cyrus Hayat 26th April 2005	Iran/Persia has never and is not a part of the Middle East. Middle East refers to the area under the Ottomann empire and next to the edge of the Eastern/Persian Empire before WWI and were given independence by the Great Britain. Those countries are Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Isreal/Palestine, and Arabian Pennsula (including the Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar...).
Augustus 11th March 2005	Greeks have been living in Egypt since before European countries ever existed. Therefore, aren't Egyptian-born Greeks Middle Eastern?
Maruja Alvarez Jacinto 3rd March 2005	Could you explain why Egypt is not considered part of the Middle East?
وتدافع منظمة 1st March 2005	Some people need to learn geography, Afghanistan is a Asian country, Turkey isn't, however there is a part of it called European Turkey. The same goes for Russia, they also have a part called European Russia. If that part of Turkey should be shown as European, then the part of Russia should also. Ukraine is however not part of Europe. As for the countries "run" by queens and/or kings I know that Denmark, Sweden, Norway, UK, Netherlands, Spain are some of them but Greece is not. They had a king but was sent on exodus in the year 1974 if I remember correct, so that is false information.
bobby 17th February 2005	were was the eastern Orthodox religion started and when
Zim Nuegut 11th February 2005	Alex, Afghanistan is a part of Asia not the Middle East and it borders Iran to the east and is located directly north of Pakistan.
sonal 8th February 2005	what about Libya, arent they middle eastern?
Tim 22nd January 2005	Why isn't Egypt and the rest of North Africa included as a part Middle East?
Astrid 3rd January 2005	This website is great for school projects but would you please include Afghanistan in this section. I couldn't find info about this country at all in any website
erfan 7th December 2004	why in the world isn't Palestine recognised, while Israel is recognised
yisel garzon 15th November 2004	Why palestinian is not a country?

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