Palestina is the original Roman spelling (cognate of Philistines, renamed from Judea, meant to insult the Jews who lived there and had rebelled against Roman authority by linking the province to the Biblical enemies of David), but I don't think it has ever been spelled -nia.
I always wondered why Kosovo is accepted as a Jetpunk country but not Palestine, given that the latter is recognized by many more countries and has a higher status in the UN now. I mean, I get it is controversial, and may annoy some people, but by that logic, having Kosovo in might annoy several Serbs and Russians, the same way including Israel and not Palestine as well annoys many Arabs. No one is asking for Israel to be removed, only fair treatment to partially recognized countries.
Yeah, about that - if Northern Cyprus is named specific, shouldn't Southern Cyprus rather be the answer to the other one? I thought since 'Cyprus' was one answer, that it would count for the entire island, so didn't think of naming just one part of it separately. That'd be like saying all of Spain is accepted by all countries, but Catalonia is not.
It´s not Southern Cyprus because the state is simply called Cyprus and is supposed to include the entire island, there are even seats in the parliament for the turkish minority still vacant. That´s why the northern pseudo-state is called "Turkish Republic". Cyprus is even a full EU member, only reason this is an issue still is due to Europe been afraid to challenge turkish ambitions.
Some of the answers seem finicky. For example, for #13 I typed in "TRNC". When that didn't work I spelled it out: "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", which also didn't work. I eventually got it, but it consumed way more time than it should have.
It's not about "not existing"; it's about whether the government of one nation recognizes the government of another nation as legitimate. Very complicated in some cases, but not surprising. Seems like in most of these cases they are portions of an existing country that is looking to become independent, and that of course causes people to take sides ("is it legitimate or not?").
Gotta love how such unstable countries have the ability to wipe us all out though. Then again you have Trump and Putin controlling the largest arsenals on the planet. SO reassuring
@BlackJohn India isn't unstable. It is one of the strongest democracies in Asia. I would rather be worried abt China and Jinping who have no value for human life.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia are both regions of Georgia that were invaded by Russia in 2008. Similar to Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, and Transnistria, these places have an ethnic Russian population and are propped up by the Russian Federation. The other countries that recognize the first two are aligned with or were seeking to curry favor with Russia. Nauru reportedly got $50 million dollars for it; not a bad deal.
The Crimea is not recognized by anyone, only a few days after independence it declared itself part of Russia, so those who recognize the independence referendum, consider it part of Russia, not an independent country.
There are two republics in the eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, which I maybe should include, as they are recognized by South Ossetia, though not by Russia or other countries. However, unlike the entities given here and Somaliland, they are generally considered insufficiently stable to be considered a country.
I'm confused as to why China is on this list. I understand that countries that recognize Taiwan don't recognize China's claim to the island, but they are not suggesting that China itself is not a sovereign nation are they?
Yes, they are. Both China and Taiwan claim that there is only one China, they just disagree about who would legally be governing it. Recognizing both would just upset both.
Depends who you ask. Taiwanese nationalism has grown considerably - that is to say, there is support for recognising the reality and declaring an independent Taiwan (as opposed to continuing to claim Taiwan for the Republic of China). Of course the People's Republic of China would be upset about either the Republic of China or a hypothetical Republic of Taiwan claiming Taiwan, since either way such an entity disputes its claim. At times there has been a stronger undercurrent of sympathy towards Taiwan reuniting with the PRC on the model of HK, but Beijing's continual interference with HK's politics has largely killed that notion in the crib.
It has a lot to do with with the UN, which in '45 gave permanent Security Council seats to five victors in WWII. The dominant West figured that China would be on side and the Communist victory in the civil war (in 1949) came as a surprise. It wasn't until a concerted effort in the 1960s and '70s that the PRC managed to swing enough votes among newly-independent countries to become the recognized seat-holder. In that process, countries eager for favours typically took sides at least partially based on who was offering what. Thus, you got some pretty crazy-looking attachments.
The official position of both the People's Republic of China (China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) is that they should have full sovereignty over all of mainland China and Taiwan. The government of Taiwan was chased off the mainland by Chairman Mao.
Too bad, because Somaliland is fairly stable and democratic (just had a peaceful change of elected president). It's just that no one wants to delegitimize the main recognized Somali government in Mogadishu, which frankly only has control over Mogadishu itself, and is often not even able to provide security there.
Was wondering about Niue and Cook Islands. I think there’s a case for them being included, not only in this quiz, but also to get full recognition status by Jetpunk, which is, let’s face it, the definitive authority on country recognition worldwide.
Nope, not protectorates but countries. They should be in the Countries of the World quiz. I say this as a New Zealander, and every New Zealander knows they are going to an overseas country when they fly to Niue or the Cook Islands.
Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand; and New Zealand conducts most diplomatic relations on its behalf. Niueans are citizens of New Zealand, and Queen Elizabeth II is head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand. Between 90% and 95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand.
If the Cook Islands are a country, I demand sovereignty for my neighborhood which has a higher population and a much higher GDP. Like most micronations, we'll take a liberal stance towards tax evasion. For a small fee, we'll hide your assets. For a slightly larger fee, we'll vote to condemn Israel in the UN. I'll volunteer to serve as ambassador to France.
Although this does bring up the interesting relationship between the US and Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia, but they don't have US citizenship, although they have the right to live and work in the US and serve in the military.
Yes I agree: a very thought provoking quiz. (I only got eight answers). Indeed one person's idea of what constitutes a country may well differ from another's. Scottish nationalists always refer to Scotland as a country eg. Also Jetpunk continues to refer to the Netherlands as a country, this is like calling England or Scotland a country. The Netherlands is a constituent member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the same way that England is a constituent of the UK. My point here is that in both cases it is the Kingdom that is the nation.
western sahara is only the region! the country is sahrawi, pls change that, you can still accept western sahara, but that should not be the answer that is seen
I beg to differ. I think that Palestine rightfully don’t belong in Jetpunk countries yet, while Kosovo and certainly Taiwan, do.
Kosovo is recognized by the US, Canada, Australia and NZ, Western Europe (apart from Spain), and Japan. The same block that has the majority in the UN Security Council, and groups together all The G7 countries - the most developed economies in the world recognize Kosovo and are willing to do business with it.
Taiwan has informal relations with 50+ countries that don’t recognize it officially. These informal relations are headlined by de-facto embassies and consulates of Taipei in those countries. Most importantly, these 50+ UN members that have “informal” relations with Taiwan include the countries I mentioned in the Kosovo case, and ALSO Russia, India, Brazil and more.
As for Palestine, it has wall-to-wall recognition in South America, Africa and most of Asia, but it HAS NOT been recognized by ANY country of the western group (except Sweden).
How about adding Transnistria and Artsakh? I know that they are not recognized by any countries, but they are recognized by other partially recognized states, including ones on this list.
It is called double standards. Kosovo is recognized by western world and by JetPunk where as Palestine isn't. Kosovo is btw. biggest american military base in Europe so everything is clear. For example: Decolonization (and independence) of Western Sahara is more than 3 decades on UN agenda but it never happened...Somalia is also split into two different terittories controlled by different groups of people,yet JetPunk counts it as one whole country.
There are now only 30 countries that don't recognize Israel, now that Bahrain and the UAE do.
"Thirty UN member states do not recognize Israel and these include 16 of the 22 members of the Arab League: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. A further ten are members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Pakistan. The other countries that do not recognise Israel are Bhutan, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela." ~ Wikipedia
There are two republics in the eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, which I maybe should include, as they are recognized by South Ossetia, though not by Russia or other countries. However, unlike the entities given here and Somaliland, they are generally considered insufficiently stable to be considered a country.
Was wondering about Niue and Cook Islands. I think there’s a case for them being included, not only in this quiz, but also to get full recognition status by Jetpunk, which is, let’s face it, the definitive authority on country recognition worldwide.
Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand; and New Zealand conducts most diplomatic relations on its behalf. Niueans are citizens of New Zealand, and Queen Elizabeth II is head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand. Between 90% and 95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand.
Kosovo is recognized by the US, Canada, Australia and NZ, Western Europe (apart from Spain), and Japan. The same block that has the majority in the UN Security Council, and groups together all The G7 countries - the most developed economies in the world recognize Kosovo and are willing to do business with it.
Taiwan has informal relations with 50+ countries that don’t recognize it officially. These informal relations are headlined by de-facto embassies and consulates of Taipei in those countries. Most importantly, these 50+ UN members that have “informal” relations with Taiwan include the countries I mentioned in the Kosovo case, and ALSO Russia, India, Brazil and more.
As for Palestine, it has wall-to-wall recognition in South America, Africa and most of Asia, but it HAS NOT been recognized by ANY country of the western group (except Sweden).
"Thirty UN member states do not recognize Israel and these include 16 of the 22 members of the Arab League: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. A further ten are members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Pakistan. The other countries that do not recognise Israel are Bhutan, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela." ~ Wikipedia
Japan: I can fix that