Southwest Asia / Eastern Europe
Southwest Asia / Eastern Europe is an unofficial subregion of Eurasia, in the southwestern Black Sea—southeastern Caspian Sea area.
To the north is the Caucasus region, to the east is Central Asia region, to the south is the Levant—Middle East region, and to the west is the Southeastern Europe region.
Geography (unofficial)
The countries considered within South—Western Asia / Eastern Europe include:
Middle East
The Middle East Region, though actually in physical continental Southwestern Asia, is usually differentiated as southern Western Asia. It has no adjacency to or borders with Eastern or Southeastern Europe.
Geography (official)
The "Southwest Asia / Eastern Europe" term is not a geographic nor cultural region, or political nor economic zone designation used by official entities. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey are placed within various official designations, but not as only four exclusively together.
United Nations
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names—UNGEGN has two Divisions covering this area.[1] accessed 12.25.2013
The "Asia South-West Division (other than Arabic)" includes Azerbaijan and Turkeyish. This Division's other countries are: Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.[1]
The "East Central and South-East Europe Division" include Georgia and Turkey. This Division's other countries are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine.[1]
United Nations geoscheme
This regional distinction is not used in the United Nations geoscheme. Its UN geoscheme for Asia has only the Western Asia subdision. Its UN geoscheme for Europe has Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe.
Southeastern Europe includes Turkey. Eastern Europe has the Transcaucasia Region that includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
United Nations Regional Groups
The United Nations Regional Groups system for member states places Turkey in the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), and the three other countries in the Eastern European Group
Other entities
Council of Europe
Turkey became a member of the Council of Europe in its founding year, 1949. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia became members after independence from the Soviet Union.
EU—European Union
Turkey and Georgia have sought membership in the EU—European Union.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia participate in the Eastern Partnership Program of the European Union.
NATO
Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952. Georgia–NATO relations includes its joining the NATO-run Partnership for Peace, and initiating gain membership in NATO, both in 2005.
CIA World Factbook
"The CIA World Factbook" of the U.S. CIA—Central Intelligence Agency designates all four countries as "Transcontinental" with no regional terms.[2] Their only regional maps that show the four countries are titled "Middle East." [3][4]
See also
- Anatolia
- Black Sea
- Caspian Sea
- Near East
- South Caucasus — Transcaucasia.
- Western Asia
- List of Eurasian countries by population
References
- 1 2 3 UNGEGN - United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names—UNGEGN, Divisions: "#8. Asia South-West Division (other than Arabic)" and "#13. East Central and South-East Europe Division"
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: homepage
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Physical Middle East Map; only region all 4 countries are shown on.
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Political Middle East Map; only region all 4 countries are shown on; accessed 12.25.2013.