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It's funny because at one time, present day Turkey was known as Asia Minor, a term which you would think would be synonymous with Middle East. How "east" a place was determined in ancient times was distance eastward from Rome. The Far East (China, Japan, Mongolia, etc.) was furthest east from Rome while closer eastern places to Rome such as Persia, Arabia, Palestine, and Anatolia were collectively called the Middle East.
It's funny because at one time, present day Turkey was known as Asia Minor, a term which you would think would be synonymous with Middle East. How "east" a place was determined in ancient times was distance eastward from Rome. The Far East (China, Japan, Mongolia, etc.) was furthest east from Rome while closer eastern places to Rome such as Persia, Arabia, Palestine, and Anatolia were collectively called the Middle East.
I agree. But i have seen many Turks denying the idea that they are middle Eastern
The Middle East is a vaguely defined term. Since the Bush era, the West has seen it as a more cultural/socioeconomic/geopolitical term rather than simply a geographical one. Far away places like Pakistan , Libya and Afghanistan get thrown into the Middle East category when they are not technically middle eastern but rather countries with a majority Muslim population. I’d definitely consider Turkey part of the Middle East as with Cyprus. However East Thrace is on the European continent so would be part of the Balkans.
I agree. But i have seen many Turks denying the idea that they are middle Eastern
That doesn't matter. Some of them have issues with this, but whether a place is Middle Eastern depends entirely on geography and almost all of Turkey is in the Middle East.
Israel is also a Middle Eastern country. Oh, that Israeli are different from much of the Middle Eastern population. True, and? The day Israel stops being Middle Eastern is when it moves to another part of the world. Let us know when a country moves. lol
Whatever happened to the term "Near East"? Turkey's a Near Eastern country, mainly, though with a toehold in Europe. Anything on the Mediterranean but beyond Europe is Near Eastern, including Israel, though the question can get complicated by the fact that Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are considered to be European, due to their location west of the Ural Mts. The Caucasus Mountains are generally taken to be a borderline between Europe and the Near East, which is why Turkey tends to be viewed as Near Eastern.
I would say, that countries south of the Caucasus and east of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea are Middle Eastern.
Whatever happened to the term "Near East"? Turkey's a Near Eastern country, mainly, though with a toehold in Europe. Anything on the Mediterranean but beyond Europe is Near Eastern, including Israel, though the question can get complicated by the fact that Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are considered to be European, due to their location west of the Ural Mts. The Caucasus Mountains are generally taken to be a borderline between Europe and the Near East, which is why Turkey tends to be viewed as Near Eastern.
I would say, that countries south of the Caucasus and east of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea are Middle Eastern.
You’d probably be correct in the historical sense. But then again as far as I know back in the day people also considered Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, etc all to be “India” or “East India”. There’s probably not super strict borders for what’s considered the Middle East today, but the old Near East overlaps with a lot of it.
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