about Turkey

[okircali]

According to IATA http://www.iata.org/worldwide/europe and ICAO http://www.paris.icao.int/member_states/member_states.htm websites, Turkey is in Europe continent, not Middle East. Also in many other websites, which asks you to choose your country, Turkey locates in Europe. I think this change should be done in AM.

[Seattle]

appart from the Istanbul area, all of turkey is geographically and culturally in the Middle East. However, the reason Turkey will be kept in the middle east is that there are fewer airports than in Europe.

[Air Elbonia]

for gameplay considerations Turkey needs to follow one of the more traditional definitions of the middle east and be a part of that continent.  Europe is a very strong continent, adding Turkey adds a little (but has a fairly small effect overall), taking Turkey from the middle east however has a significant impact on that continent.

This decision was initially made back when the MidEast in game only had about 20 or 30 airports, however even with its present number of airports the continent still needs Turkey far more then Europe does, sorry about this.  The same holds true, if it's any solice, for Mexico -> North America vs Central America.

[okircali]

Actually I disagree with Seattle. I am a Turkish citizen and culturally I don't feel even close to Middle East but Europe. I think that would be very assertive to say that it's culturally in Middle East. As geographically; it's connecting Europe and Asia. Middle East is the name of the region but not the continent. Some parts of the country(like Istanbul and many other cities, around 20 million population) is in Europe continent and the rest is in Asia.
As I wrote before, Middle East is even not a continent. Why is it listed under continents? Shouldn't it be Asia?

So Turkey can't be in Europe because there are so few airports in Middle East. But in real life there actually ARE few airports in Middle East. So this shouldn't be the reason.
If you are giving the names of the regions, maybe you may think of putting Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe etc. So Europe wouldn't be so strong in the game.

I would like to make it clear that I don't mean to be nationalist or anything political. I only would like to see everything in international standards, as IATA and ICAO accepted.
Thank you for your answers.

[Seattle]

As a Greek citizen, Geographicaly, All of Turkey is part of Asia/the middle east except for the region west of the Sea of Marmara. Europe ends at the Black Sea, down and through the sea of Marmara, into the Aegean Sea. Also ends with the Caucus Mts. Culturally, unless you live inside of Istanbul, then you'd probably do things very differently than in Europe. Besides that, the reason a Middle East Region is included to allow greater availability of regions to play in, with out oter players intruding from different continents. A Western/Eastern Europe isnt fesabile becuase of the small sizes.

[MrOrange]

The advantage of using regions over continents in this case is that, looking at Turkey, it doesn't even matter if it belongs in Europe or Asia. It can be counted as Middle Eastern, seeing as a large part of it is in fact in the Middle East, which should not have any effect on any debate (which, BTW, I don't want to see here so stop that) whether Turkey should be in Europe or Asia, the two of which are continents. As a region, the Middle East works quite well and Turkey, due to its geographical position, has been put in there.

[beirut785]

yeah but almost everywhere turkey is like under the Middle East Section
check cnn.com/weather
eventhough its more euro but it will always be considered a middle eastern country

[okircali]

Culturally, unless you live inside of Istanbul, then you'd probably do things very differently than in Europe.

I had been in several European countries, lived in Sweden for years, lived in Istanbul and now I live in the capital city, Ankara, my hometown. I do not do things different than I did in other cities and countries I lived before. I think you have to see a country first before making any "serious" comments about it. Besides, the borders you mentioned, are being discussed in today's world. For example, some people call Russia Eurasia, some of them call it Asia, some call Europe. Turkey locates between two continents (a transcontinental country) and has land on both continents, which most of it is on Asia side. According to your thesis, Israel shouldn't participate Eurovision. And why is Southern Cyprus a member of EU?

@beirut785, at cnn.com, Cyprus is in Middle East too. if you check bbc.com, you'll see Turkey in Europe.

Actually, I asked the very first question because I'm not thinking of putting flights to the east but to the west. I can only create bases in Middle East, and I don't prefer to do it in Iran or Saudi Arabia (just a personal preference, with all my respect to people of those countries).

As I wrote before, we are just playing a game here, we don't need to go in politics and we shouldn't. I apologize from everyone if I had any offensive behaviour in my messages. I don't mean to be provocative or show any nationalist behaviour. With my kind regards.

[CrazyHorse]

Turkey is in Asia, no matter how people there live... Only a tiny part of it is in Europe.

It is much better for the gameplay to keep the regions as they are (like Europe, Middle East, Asia etc).

[beirut785]

Culturally, unless you live inside of Istanbul, then you'd probably do things very differently than in Europe.

I had been in several European countries, lived in Sweden for years, lived in Istanbul and now I live in the capital city, Ankara, my hometown. I do not do things different than I did in other cities and countries I lived before. I think you have to see a country first before making any "serious" comments about it. Besides, the borders you mentioned, are being discussed in today's world. For example, some people call Russia Eurasia, some of them call it Asia, some call Europe. Turkey locates between two continents (a transcontinental country) and has land on both continents, which most of it is on Asia side. According to your thesis, Israel shouldn't participate Eurovision. And why is Southern Cyprus a member of EU?

@beirut785, at cnn.com, Cyprus is in Middle East too. if you check bbc.com, you'll see Turkey in Europe.

Actually, I asked the very first question because I'm not thinking of putting flights to the east but to the west. I can only create bases in Middle East, and I don't prefer to do it in Iran or Saudi Arabia (just a personal preference, with all my respect to people of those countries).

As I wrote before, we are just playing a game here, we don't need to go in politics and we shouldn't. I apologize from everyone if I had any offensive behaviour in my messages. I don't mean to be provocative or show any nationalist behaviour. With my kind regards.

Cyprus is in the middle eastern region but considered europe since its somehow occupied by greece and part of the EU, Turkey will always be a middle eastern country eventhough they have lots of european traditions and lifestyle but if u go back to history during the ottoman empire u'll find out that turkey is middle eastern there is nothing wrong by that , also eventhough turkey somehow has a very european style u can still c lots of middle eastern traditions hint belly dancers music

Israel is not considered european but the reason why israel participates in eurovision even in the european football championship simply because they r somehow banned or not allowed to do those in asia hint the arab israeli war plus most of the asian countries do no have relations with israel if u exclude eastern asian countries

russia is considered european almost everywhere coz they had a big role in europe before and still now hint ex soviet nations in europe world war 2 and 1

turkey being part of the middle east in the game somehow i c it as a good issue 1st u'll have lot of cities in the middle east to serve which r not very saturated as they are in europe and others said if u add turkey to europe wont make a big difference but if u remove turkey from the middle east it will

plus now if u really want to open a hub in europe u can i think that option is possible now

[MrOrange]

Thread locked. As stated before, this topic should not be about whether Turkey belongs in Europe or in Asia. In-game, it's in the Middle East. Period. It's not going to change.