5 COUNTRIES THAT DO NOT EXIST….YET EXIST

What do you think it takes to be a country? Well, the perfect recipe to make an independent country is: A piece of land, some people living on it, some form of currency, passports for the residents, a flag, a national anthem and a few other similar requirements. And Voila! You have new country for yourself. But there’s one more special ingredient that helps the newborn country establish itself completely: International Recognition.

Allow me to take you through a quick list of 5 countries in the world that have very little or absolutely no recognition by other countries.

5. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic:

2  NKR Dram bank note

NKR Passport

                The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is an unrecognized de facto independent state within the Republic of Azerbaijan. The struggle for this piece of land began as soon as Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence from Soviet Union in 1991. The country is a result of cat-fight between the two newly independent states. The military conflict stopped after an unofficial cease-fire was reached on May 12, 1994, through Russian negotiation, and continues even today. As far as currency and passport are concerned NKR has them both of her own. The currency is called Nagorno-Karabakh Dram. Though it is a legal tender pegged with Armenian Dram it is not used by the locals and only sold as a souvenir. The locals instead use Armenian Dram. NKR passport looks quite similar to the Armenian Passport. And last but not the least, NKR is not recognized as a country by any of the 193 members of UN. Infact, the only three countries to recognize NKR (Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria) are themselves self-declared states with no recognition.

4. Republic of South Ossetia: 

Flag of South Ossetia

South Ossetia was a self-governing region even during the time of Soviet Union and was officially a part of Soviet Georgia. Just around the time when Soviet Union was collapsing like dominos Georgia also declared independence from the Union. As soon as Georgia withdrew from the Union in 1991, South Ossetia also declared independence from Georgia which led to a year long violent battle that ended with formation of South Ossetia territory. Yet Georgia had a not learned to leave South Ossetia alone and attacked her 22 years later in 2004 and subsequently in 2008 and ate dirt on both the occasions. Why did Georgia loose thrice? Because, RUSSIA!!! South Ossetia does not have her own currency but uses its ‘Big Daddy’s Bucks’ (Ruble). She has her own passport, a flag and a national anthem though. Talking about recognition, the only recognized countries to recognize South Ossetia Republic are Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Apart from these three there’s one more country to recognize South Ossetia. Wanna guess? It’s Abkhazia! She recognizes all those which others can’t even see.

Map of Georgia showing South Ossetia and Abkhazia

3. Republic of Abkhazia: 

Poor Georgia. Abkhazia like South Ossetia, was also a self-governing territory since the time of Soviet Russia. Georgia had to let her go too after a year long war. Today Abkhazia claims that it is an independent country and is recognized as so by the same trio that recognizes South Ossetia. Georgia’s take on the status of this territory is that it is officially designated as an autonomous republic within the Republic of Georgia (legal term for a spoilt brat). Also, since Abkhazia is doing all the unrecognized countries like South Ossetia, Nogorno-Karabakh, Transnistria a favor by recognizing them, they too in turn recognize her as an independent state Unlike South Ossetia, Abkhazia has her own currency called Abkhazian Apsar which is in very limited circulation along with Russian Ruble which acts as a legal tender for the locals but the strange thing about Abkhazian Apsar is that there aren't any banknotes instead they have only coins mainly minted for collectors. She also has her own flag, passport and a national anthem.

10 Transnistrian Ruble

2. Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica:

Map depicting the strip of Transnistria

Commonly known as Transnistria is a post-Soviet era frozen-conflict region like the above three. A thin strip of land that broke away from Moldova in 1990 because she didn’t like the idea of disintegration of Soviet Union. This conflict too like others took the form of a war and ended with a cease fire due to Russian intervention (Not surprising, is it?). Like other self-declared independent states she too has her own currency, flag, national anthem and passport. Apart from these, Transnistria also has her own presidential republic government, parliament, military, police and a postal system. In other words, this piece of land is more independent and developed than her mother Moldova. As far as recognition is concerned, none of the UN members recognize her as a country but is recognized by similar frozen-conflict states.

500 Somaliland Shillings

1. Republic of Somaliland: 

Flag of Somaliland

This country took the decision of declaring its self as an independent state in 1991 right after the Civil war broke out as a resistance to the de facto dictator President Siyaad Barre and till date has absolutely no recognition from any country or even an international organization. This region has been in a state of civil unrest for well over 23 years now. Located within Federal Republic of Somalia, this country has her own currency (Somaliland Shilling), flag, passport etc. But the biggest hurdle lies in its recognition as an independent state. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia citing tribal conflicts. The people of Somaliland (Isaaq tribe) alleged that the then President of Somalia (Siyaad Barre) only favored his tribe (Marehan Tribe) members and was corrupt. Since its independence, Somaliland has become relatively developed and progressed a lot while the rest of Somalia is still in disarray.