GeoNames Forum

In a practical use of the Geonames data, a project I am working with has a number of members who are in Turkey.

Several of them have written to complain bitterly about the classification of Turkey under "Asia" instead of "Europe"

Is there a reason why Turkey is classified under Asia and not under Europe? Is this essentially a political argument between Western Europeans and the Turks? Was the decision arbitrary based on geographic proximity, or is there a political justification?

I realize myself that there are always going to be territorial disputes and disagreements in some areas of the world (Taiwan and China come to mind). However in this case I am wondering what the thinking process is, or if Turkey should be reclassified to Europe by some logic that the Turks have?

The person making this argument to me also provided the following corrections for several locations in Turkey:

--

OK! USE GOOGLE MAPS !!
BUT READ THE RESPECTIVE LISTING'S GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION FIRST
TO AVOID GRAVE ERRORS!

FOR EXAMPLE :
DALYAN IS NOT IN ÇANAKKALE PROVINCE(AEGEAN) BUT
IS IN MUGLA PROVINCE(SW MEDITERRANEAN)!!!!!!

KALKAN İS NOT IN KUTAHYA P$ROVINCE(CENTRAL ANATOLIA)BUT
IN ANTALYA PROVINCE 5SW MEDITERRANEAN)!!!!

I HOPE THIS INFORMATION HELPS YOU!
SO PLEASE MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTIONS!

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE

TURKEY IS NOT IN ASIA BUT
IS IN E U R O P E !!!!

It is a geographical decision, not a political one. The geographical border between Europe and Asia is the Bosporus. According to this 97% of Turkey is in Asia and only 3% in Europe.

GeoNames lists two populated places with the name 'Dalyan', one in Çanakkale Procince and the other in Muğla:
http://www.geonames.org/317678/dalyan.html
http://www.geonames.org/317681/dalyan.html

Best

Marc

marc wrote:

It is a geographical decision, not a political one. The geographical border between Europe and Asia is the Bosporus. According to this 97% of Turkey is in Asia and only 3% in Europe.

GeoNames lists two populated places with the name 'Dalyan', one in Çanakkale Procince and the other in Muğla:
http://www.geonames.org/317678/dalyan.html
http://www.geonames.org/317681/dalyan.html

Best

Marc

Thank you. A perfectly reasonable answer!

i understand that the country turkey is listed under AS asia. but why are provinces listed as AS that are in europe?

example: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edirne_(Provinz)

http://api.geonames.org/search?country=TR&username=DEMO&featureCode=ADM1&style=full

i guess it has been discussed before. (i've only found topics about the country, not provinces)

it's not an issue for me. what is a continent is disputable anyway.

GeoNames has so far only mapped the countries to continents and doesn't distinguish between provinces on different continents. It would need a list of provinces of countries spanning continents with the proper continent for each province.
Do you want to help compile this list?

Marc

can we show a source to this unwritten rule?

"If a certain countries majority of land is situated in a certain continent, that country is listed as belonging to that continent."

Can we assume that this law is unwritten. There is absolutely no geographic authority that claims Turkey is Asian. Can we use this as an opportunity to list Turkey as being a European country? I mean the law can turn into, "if a country borders two continents, it belongs whichever it wants to belong".

This is a bitter issue in Turkey because of cultural issues relating to European Union. A broad divide between cultures is being set and this geographical fact above provides an unfair support to it... "Turkey is not european and will never be."

I'm writing from european side of Turkey.

Please keep in mind this simple fact:

1) Borders of Europe are not defined geographically, but rather politically and culturally. Europe does not have its own tectonic plate and is therefore tectonically speaking not a separate continent. Europe is, however, considered a separate continent for cultural/political/historical reasons. The geographical boundaries of Europe, though, are defined arbitrarily.

2) Inconsistency: Russia. 77% of Russia is in Asia and 23% is in Europe and yet it is listed as Europe under this website.

I'm not sure if I understand this.

Can we please change Turkey to be listed as in Europe? as a gesture? while geographical rules and things are settled.