Beyond citypopulation.de's 242 countries lie a few more states claiming to be countries as well - can you name them? We exclude a delightful list of micronations you might want to have a read of sometime.
I think that was the one I was trying to type, but made it into something like Arbakh ang gave up. A combo of abkazia, karabakh and artsakh..
And askabath kept going through my mind.. (Ashgabat). Anyway, I big mess all I knew for sure there was atleast one place starting with an a on here haha
... and back to 249 countries again, now that Nagorno-Karabakh has been abandoned by its inhabitants after Azerbaijan blockaded it - something that international experts have described as a war crime or a crime against humanity. See here for further information.
What a pain to see here Somaliland, a country that has been de facto independant since 1993, has managed to conduct cleaner and more democratic elections than 90% of african countries, and has developed a political stable model, when world's attention is focused on the failed state of Somalia, where UN's money only serve corrupted politicians...
Somaliland's model should be adapted to Somalia, not the western one!
Exactly. Somaliland might have plenty of problems, but it's still more significantly more stable and democratic than the rest of Somalia. In some ways I think it's more of a country than Somalia because it actually has a functioning government. I totally agree with @Victoulapin, even if it isn't recognized by anyone, it has a much better claim to being an independent country than most of the "countries" here and here.
Sharia is bad. I may be biased as a "Westerner" but I believe no country's government should have the right to force religious law onto everybody. I am of Colombian descent where the population is overwhelmingly Catholic. I would not support any decision to force Catholic rules onto everybody and I think the same should apply there
Grantma: by whom? According to most of the world, Northern Cyprus is part of the country of Cyprus, which is a different thing, and has been illegally occupied by Turkey. According to the government of Northern Cyprus and of Turkey, it's the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. That's it's official name. Even those (very few) entities that recognize TRNC's legitimacy and sovereignty don't call it simply "Cyprus."
Having visited both Northern Cyprus and the southern Republic of Cyprus, they each function as fully independent countries. Frankly, Northern Cyprus's non-recognition, beyond by Turkey, completely baffles me.
Would be nice if 'trnc' was an accepted type-in, as it's official name is Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and it's commonly referred to as the TRNC (in much the same way that North Macedonia used to be known by its acronym FYROM).
As much as I am supportive of the Catalan independence movement, Catalonia doesn't have anything like the autonomy of any of the others in the list. It also has less autonomy than the constituent parts of the UK, for instance.
It has held a few referenda but never actually declared independence from Spain.
The Parliament of Catalonia passed a declaration of independence on 27 October 2017, following a referendum that produced a 90% vote in favour of independence. The central Spanish government keeps wailing that both were "illegal" - but all votes of independence anywhere have always been "illegal". History is littered with big groups trying to cling onto smaller groups, even when the smaller groups want to leave - USA from Great Britain in 1776, Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, Timor-Leste from Indonesia in 1975 to name but three.
The fact that it was legal or not is not the most important here. Yes, Catalonia tried to take their independance. But they failed, at least for the moment, Spain has taken direct control of the region, Catalonia is not a sovereign country right now. To be continued...
*Have* all votes of independence anywhere been illegal, though? What about South Sudan, Timor-Leste in 1999, Malta, Liberia/Maryland, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, etc? What about even votes that failed to gain enough support but would almost certainly be honored, such as Scotland and Puerto Rico?
It certainly isn't surprising when a country refuses to recognize the independence of one of its constituent parts, but the alternative is also possible. I don't think you should automatically assume that calling a referendum illegal is done in bad faith.
I don't necessarily think it's done in good faith, either, I'm just saying it's quite borderline for this particular grouping. Life tends to be complicated.
Anyway, a few years on, the Catalonian government hasn't really done anything to build a state apparatus independent of Spain, and everyone agrees that, currently and despite the independence declaration, Catalonia is a part of Spain.
I have a feeling that Catalonia doesn't deserve to be in this quiz considering that all the other countries in this quiz are technically functioning like a real country - with actual government acting independently from the home country - while Catalonia just declared independence and was kicked out before anything... Anyways nice quiz!
You might include as well Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, which seceded from Ukraine in 2014 (although most say they are Russian puppet-States, which however could apply as a definition also to Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria).
Oh yeah. Catalonia. Should have guessed that. Especially with the thumbnail which I just noticed, duh. I was trying to remember the names of both Spanish exclaves in Africa. That's the only one I missed other than the one in Azerbaijan never heard of that one. I've been by South Ossetia, and spent about a week in Northern Cyprus before. Transnistria I remember as being the only place that wouldn't accept my car's paperwork for entry and so I had to drive around it on my way to Ukraine. (Serbia would later become the only place that accepted the paperwork on the way in but did not accept it on the way out and used this as a pretext to steal my car - I preferred the Transnistrian's approach)
oh wait I have heard of the Azerbaijani one. That's that disputed exclave that's also claimed by Armenia, I think. I knew that was there. Wouldn't have remembered the name, though.
I hope I'm not being as dim as some of the other commenters here, but how about Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic? It seems just like the obverse of Nagorno-Karabakh to me
Most importantly, they didn't declare independence, even if they have a pretty independent rule, at least until the recent crackdown on that. Similar to Puntland in Somalia and probably other regions around the world.
Hey! The link in the description confuses me. I heard of way more independentist movements that were more serious than the ones in the wikipedia list but less important than the one in the quiz. Where are they?
Officially it will be dissolved on 1 January 2024, so it "still exists" for now. In practice, it doesn't anymore, since all the surviving population has been evicted. I'm not sure what criterion this quiz uses.
Does Bougainville have an argument to be here? Their referendum (while non-binding) was passed in 2019 and they signed an agreement with PNG in July 2021 that they will gain independence by 2027 as long as it is ratified by PNG. They have also been autonomous since 2000. This could be a good home for them as #250 until they get to be on the official countries of the world quiz (if all goes right).
Also saw your response on the countries 197-205 quiz and understand why they would not be on that quiz specifically.
And askabath kept going through my mind.. (Ashgabat). Anyway, I big mess all I knew for sure there was atleast one place starting with an a on here haha
Somaliland's model should be adapted to Somalia, not the western one!
Oh wait Somalia isn't any better...
well, at any rate, both Cyprus and North Cyprus are wrong.
It has held a few referenda but never actually declared independence from Spain.
It certainly isn't surprising when a country refuses to recognize the independence of one of its constituent parts, but the alternative is also possible. I don't think you should automatically assume that calling a referendum illegal is done in bad faith.
I don't necessarily think it's done in good faith, either, I'm just saying it's quite borderline for this particular grouping. Life tends to be complicated.
It should be removed from this quiz.
This quiz series is very interesting :))
Also saw your response on the countries 197-205 quiz and understand why they would not be on that quiz specifically.