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00:00How many countries are there in the world?
00:02Do you know the correct answer?
00:04Well, there isn't exactly a correct answer.
00:06The answer depends a lot on your geographical location.
00:10The United Nations lists 193 countries as members, while the International Olympic Committee
00:16lists 206 member countries.
00:18Meanwhile, FIFA lists 211 countries as members.
00:22The United States government would say that there are 196 countries in the world, while
00:27the Russian government would say 197.
00:31Everybody has different answers to the question, largely because of these 15 places that, by
00:36pretty much every conventional definition, are actual functioning countries, but which
00:40have only limited international recognition for a whole bunch of different geopolitical
00:45reasons.
00:46In this video, we list those 15 places for you which are technically countries, but many
00:51people don't believe they even exist.
00:53Prepare to be shocked by some of the names on this list.
00:57Number 1 – Sealand
01:04Sealand, which is one of the first micronations in the world, is unique as it is man-made
01:09rather than natural.
01:11The nation is simply founded on a platform in the North Sea, 12 kilometers off the shoreline
01:15of England.
01:17The full-fledged nation has its own currency, flag, visas, and surprisingly, even a national
01:23football team.
01:24There also have been several music recordings that were shot on Sealand, and regardless
01:28of it being only a platform, in 2015, it facilitated a half-marathon on a treadmill which gave
01:34large exposure to the country which isn't even officially recognized as of yet.
01:40Not many people know of it and even fewer will believe it's a country.
01:44Believe it or not, it is.
01:47Number 2 – Republic of China or PRC
01:51China has emerged as a global superpower in the last decade.
01:55It is only one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council that
01:59is unrecognized by 15 other UN member states and one UN observer and one non-UN state.
02:06However, withholding recognition is not a pretty big deal for China as most of the countries
02:11which do not recognize the country are just pretty tiny as compared to China, which has
02:15the largest global population.
02:18Countries like Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Buran, Belize, and the
02:25tiny island countries of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, Marshall Islands, and
02:30Tuvula refuse to recognize the Republic of China in its current form.
02:35The main reason for this controversy is the Chinese occupation of Taiwan.
02:40PRC on the mainland and the ROC on the island of Taiwan each claim to be the sole legal
02:46government and representative for all of China on the international stage.
02:50Each pursues its version of the one-China policy, meaning that every country in the
02:55world is given a binary choice either to recognize the PRC or the ROC as China.
03:01The entire world recognizes the significantly larger and more influential PRC while only
03:0715 UN members have publicly chosen to side with a smaller and less influential ROC.
03:13So if you live in one of these 15 countries, chances are you will not know PRC exists.
03:20Number 3.
03:21North Cyprus Cyprus' modern-day history has been overwhelmed
03:26by conflicts between its Greek and Turkish inhabitants.
03:30Cyprus was separated in around 1974 when Turkey attacked the north because of a tactical overthrow
03:36on the island which was supported by the Greek government.
03:39The island was effectively divided with the northern 33% island controlled by a Turkish
03:44Cypriot government and the southern 66% run by the universally recognized government driven
03:50by the Greek Cypriots.
03:52Interestingly, Turkey is the only country that recognizes Northern Cyprus.
03:57Turkey has a government office in North Nicosia and Northern Cyprus has an embassy in Ankara.
04:03In 2005, Yahya Jameh, then president of the Gambia, said that his nation was prepared
04:08to recognize the autonomy of Northern Cyprus.
04:11The Cypriot government dissented and Gambia didn't recognize the TRNC.
04:16At one point, Azerbaijan and the Gambia agreed to officially recognize the TRNC.
04:21However, till today, that hasn't happened, yet their casual contacts with North Cyprus
04:26have expanded.
04:28Also, more and more representatives from different nations have recently visited the TRNC embassy
04:33in Ankara to hold meetings with the TRNC ambassador.
04:37The latest country to express its goal to change its strategy toward TRNC is Paraguay.
04:42But in 1983, both Bangladesh and Pakistan pulled out of acknowledgement after UNSC Resolution
04:48541 and global pressure.
04:51With so little international recognition, it isn't amazing if many people don't even
04:55believe in the existence of North Cyprus.
04:59Number 4.
05:00The Republic of Armenia
05:03Since its independence, Armenia has maintained a policy of trying to have positive and friendly
05:08relations with Iran, Russia, and the West, including the United States and the European
05:13Union.
05:14It has full membership status in several international organizations and observer status in some
05:19others.
05:20However, the disputes over the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
05:27has created tense relations with two of its immediate neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
05:33Armenia is a member of more than 70 different international organizations, including the
05:37Asian Development Bank and the European Council, and it's largely recognized in the world.
05:42Meanwhile, Pakistan is the only country in the world that does not officially recognize
05:47Armenia.
05:48Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen have also severed their diplomatic relations with Armenia,
05:54but they still at least recognize Armenia's existence.
05:57Even Azerbaijan recognizes the existence of Armenia, but not Pakistan.
06:03Number 5.
06:04North Korea
06:06The hostile relations of North Korea, formerly the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
06:11or the DPRK, with the world have been molded by its contention with South Korea and its
06:16verifiable ties with world communism.
06:19Both North Korea and South Korea claim to be the sole genuine government of the entire
06:23Korean peninsula.
06:25The Korean War during the 1950s neglected to determine the issue, leaving North Korea
06:30secured in a tactical showdown with South Korea and the United States forces Korea across
06:34the demilitarized zone.
06:36However, towards the beginning of the Cold War, North Korea obtained strategic acknowledgment
06:41from communist nations.
06:43Throughout the next many years, it laid out relations with majorly developing nations
06:47and joined the non-aligned movement.
06:49Whenever the Eastern Bloc imploded in 1989-1992, North Korea put forth attempts to work on
06:55its strategic relations with developed capitalist nations.
06:59Simultaneously, there were global endeavors to determine the war for the Korean peninsula.
07:04Simultaneously, North Korea gained atomic weapons, adding to the worries of the worldwide
07:09community.
07:10In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un started talks with South Korea and the United States.
07:16This was the first face-to-face conversation between the head of North Korea and the sitting
07:20president of the United States.
07:22However, North Korea remains extremely reclusive on the world stage.
07:28Number 6.
07:29Israel
07:31Israel is a member of the United Nations but is presently unrecognized by 28 other UN member
07:36states and the number is changing all the time.
07:39Back in 1948, the present-day states of Israel and Palestine were each part of a British
07:44mandate.
07:46The British decided to divide the land between an independent Jewish state and an independent
07:50Arab state, but it went rather sloppy.
07:53Immediately upon Israel's founding, the entire Arab and most of the Islamic world took the
07:57position that the state was founded upon Arabian land taken from the Palestinians by the British
08:03and hence universally refused to recognize Israel's existence.
08:07As the Cold War intensified, the Americans backed the Israeli cause while the Soviets
08:11backed the Palestinian and Arab cause, which led to nearly the entire Communist Eastern
08:16Bloc withdrawing their recognition from Israel as well for its entire existence.
08:21But the Israeli and American diplomacy, along with massive geopolitical shifts, would dramatically
08:26change that over the next several decades.
08:28In 1979, Egypt broke from the rest of the Arab world and became the first Arab state
08:33to recognize Israel in exchange for the return of the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had seized
08:38during the Six-Day War of 1967.
08:41By the 1990s, the Soviet Union had collapsed and Eastern Europe, along with China, finally
08:46got around to recognizing Israel as well.
08:49In 1994, Jordan was the second Arab state to recognize Israel.
08:54Israel also managed to convince Guinea to recognize them in 2016 by assisting them with
08:59their Ebola epidemic.
09:00Today, 28 countries continue to not recognize Israel.
09:05They include mostly from the Islamic world with the likes of Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
09:10and Iran, with a combined population of more than 1.16 billion people.
09:16Number 7.
09:18Palestine
09:20Surrounding Israel is the controversy surrounding the state of Palestine, which claims the areas
09:24of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, all three of which are presently
09:29and effectively under Israeli occupation or blockade.
09:33Palestine is the first country on this list which is not a full member state of the United
09:36Nations but is instead a UN observer state, a position they've only held for nine years
09:41since 2012.
09:44At present, the Palestinian state is still unrecognized by at least 55 UN member states,
09:49having a combined population of 1.24 billion people.
09:53These states primarily consist of North America, entire Western Europe, Australia, Japan, South
09:59Korea, and Israel itself.
10:02On the other hand, Palestine is also recognized by 138 UN member states, including the whole
10:07of the Arab and Islamic worlds, South America, China, and most of Eastern Europe.
10:14Number 8.
10:15Kosovo
10:16Kosovo lies in Europe with a population of nearly 2 million people.
10:22Kosovo declared independence from Serbia 13 years ago in 2008.
10:27Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian kingdoms came together under the government of Tito
10:32after World War II and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established by
10:36Tito.
10:37Kosovo then became a state under the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
10:42After its independence, the USA, NATO, and EU agreed to recognize the independence of
10:48Kosovo.
10:49However, Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Spain, and Azerbaijan didn't recognize the independence
10:56of Kosovo.
10:57Albania, France, Turkey, and the UK were the first countries to recognize the independence
11:03of Kosovo on February 18, 2008.
11:06Russia had a close relationship with Serbia, therefore, they were on the Serbian side.
11:11Furthermore, Russia stated that the independence of Kosovo might encourage other territories
11:16to seek independence.
11:18The Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
11:23wasn't recognized for nearly 40 years.
11:26He told Western countries that they should be ashamed of their hypocritical attitudes.
11:30Serbia claims that the land of Kosovo belonged to Serbia.
11:35Number 9.
11:36Sahrawi or SADR
11:39Western Sahara, previously the Spanish state of Spanish Sahara, is a contested territory
11:44claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, which is a freedom development
11:49situated in Algeria.
11:51The annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco occurred in two phases, in 1976 and 1979,
11:58and is viewed as unlawful under worldwide regulation.
12:02Western Sahara, or SADR, is considered by the United Nations as a decolonized region
12:07and is consequently remembered for the United Nations' rundown of non-self-governing territories.
12:13Under global regulation, Western Sahara is certainly not a legitimate part of Morocco
12:19and it stays under the worldwide laws of military occupation.
12:22As of September 2021, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is recognized by 41 out of an aggregate
12:29of 193 United Nations member states.
12:32At various times, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has been recognized by 84 UN member
12:38states, yet of these, 43 have since frozen or removed the acknowledgement.
12:44Number 10.
12:45Taiwan
12:47The controversy encompassing the political status of Taiwan is an after-effect of the
12:52Chinese Civil War and the ensuing split of China into the two present-day self-administering
12:57entities, the People's Republic of China, the PRC or China, and the Republic of China,
13:03or the ROC, or Taiwan.
13:05The issue relies on whether the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu ought to
13:10remain domains of the ROC as an accepted separate self-governing entity or become a part of
13:16the PRC under one country.
13:19The discussion additionally concerns whether the presence and lawful status as a sovereign
13:23condition of both the ROC and the PRC are authentic as an issue of worldwide regulation.
13:29The state of affairs is acknowledged to a great extent since it doesn't characterize
13:33the lawful or future status of Taiwan, passing on each group to decipher what is happening
13:38in a manner that is politically okay to its individuals.
13:42Simultaneously, an arrangement of the state of affairs has been condemned as being hazardous
13:46definitively because various sides have various translations of what the state of affairs
13:50is, prompting the chance of battle through brinkmanship or error.
13:55The PRC looks for the end of Taiwan's true autonomy through the course of reunification
14:00and has not precluded the utilization of power in the quest for this objective.
14:04The 21st largest economy that is comparable in size to Turkey with a population of more
14:09than 23 million individuals, the ROC keeps up with informal binds with over 50 UN-part
14:15states across the world, remembering the United States, who for 2010 arranged an arrangement
14:20to sell 6.4 billion bucks of weapons to them, which causes them to appear to be huge amounts
14:25like really authentic.
14:2711.
14:30The Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia
14:34These are the two breakaway states of Georgia, which declared their independence in 1992
14:39and 1993.
14:40Today, they are only recognized by the same five UN member states, Russia, Venezuela,
14:46Syria, Nicaragua, and Nauru, while Tiny Venatu believes that while South Ossetia isn't
14:52a country, Abkhazia is, which gives them ever so slightly more international recognition.
14:57Russia, though, is the primary supporter of both countries' legitimacy with a population
15:02of more than 140 million, which has led some to argue that both are almost just de facto
15:07Russian protectorates.
15:09Nearly every other UN member, however, continues taking the Georgian position that both South
15:14Ossetia and Abkhazia are merely rebellious provinces of Georgia.
15:1912.
15:21The Republic of Artsakh Artsakh, formerly the Republic of Artsakh,
15:26is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus upheld by Armenia, whose area is universally
15:31perceived as a feature of Azerbaijan.
15:34Artsakh controls a piece of the previous Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, including the capital of
15:39Stepanakert.
15:40It's an area inside Azerbaijan.
15:43Its just-overland access course to Armenia is through the 5-kilometer-wide Lechin Hall,
15:48which is heavily influenced by Russian peacekeepers.
15:50UN member or observer as of now recognizes Artsakh, although none of its foreign relations
15:56are official.
15:57Still, the Republic of Artsakh operates five long-lasting missions and one Bureau of Social
16:02Politic Information in France.
16:05Artsakh's permanent missions exist in Armenia, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, the United
16:10States, and one for Middle East nations situated in Beirut.
16:14The objectives of the workplaces are to introduce the Republic's stand on different issues,
16:19provide data, and work within the process.
16:22In his 2015 discourse, the President of Armenia, Serzh Sogdzhan, expressed that he thought
16:27about Nagorno-Karabakh as an indivisible part of Armenia.
16:31The Republic of Artsakh is neither a member nor observer of the UN nor any of its specific
16:36offices.
16:37However, it is a part of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations, regularly
16:42known as the Federation of Unrecognized States, and is recognized by Transnistria, Abkhazia,
16:47and South Ossetia.
16:5013.
16:52Transnistria
16:53Quite possibly the most notorious unrecognized country is Transnistria, whose official name
16:59is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
17:02It's a slender piece of land between Ukraine and Moldova.
17:05Transnistria, which announced freedom from Moldova back in the mid-90s, is situated between
17:10the Dynasty River in the west and the Ukrainian Line in the east.
17:14Almost a million strong population with Transnistria follow their free government, military, and
17:19police, along with their constitution and flags that are all entirely separate of Moldova.
17:24However, not a single UN member recognizes Transnistria as an autonomous country, albeit
17:29three nations who have some UN membership acknowledge the country, like the previously
17:33mentioned Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Artsakh, who all keep a strategy of recognizing each
17:38other.
17:40Since a global power like Russia recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Armenia recognize
17:45Artsakh and every one of the three of those nations recognizes Transnistria, which provides
17:50some sort of authenticity to Transnistria's bid.
17:55Number 14.
17:56Somaliland Somaliland fought a brutal seven-year-long
18:01war of independence from Somalia, which saw hundreds of thousands of deaths in 1991.
18:06The country declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia based upon the borders
18:11of the very short-lived, five-day-long Republic of Somaliland, which existed in 1960.
18:17Somaliland was formed immediately after the country gained independence from Britain but
18:21was later joined with the rest of Somalia.
18:23Today, however, in all aspects, Somaliland is pretty much a fully independent country
18:28and has a population of nearly 6 million people, just like Transnistria.
18:33The country has its own completely independent and separate democratic government, which
18:37operates elections entirely outside of the Somalian system.
18:41But despite this, there isn't even a single other country or UN member state which has
18:45ever officially recognized its existence.
18:48Somalia, meanwhile, continues to claim Somaliland as just an autonomous province of Somalia,
18:53and because there isn't any official recognition, most people in the world aren't even aware
18:58of the existence of Somaliland as a country.
19:02Number 15.
19:03The Republic of Uzupis One of the most eccentric and odd self-proclaimed
19:08republics, the Republic of Uzupis was formed in 1997 by inhabitants of an artistic neighborhood
19:14in the city of Vilunius, Lithuania's capital.
19:17The nation invites tourists, and you might even get your passport stamped in the post
19:21office or an art gallery.
19:23You can also get the local cash, the uza, and taste some Uzupian beer.
19:28The nation has its flag, money, president, cabinet, and a rather peculiar constitution,
19:34a sizable military, and a public holiday, which is April 1st.
19:39The area proclaimed itself a micronation on the 1st of April in 1998, and many at first
19:44considered this an April Fool's prank, however, it was not.
19:48The inhabitants here have been celebrating this day as Independence Day, also called
19:52the Uzupis Day, consistently from that point forward.
19:57So these were some of the odd countries in the world which exist as independent nations,
20:02but most people in the world do not know about them or believe that they are fake.
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