History Main / Qurac

* Qurac, the TropeNamer, from the Franchise/DCUniverse. In the 1980s, Qurac appeared in ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'' (where it was introduced), ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Adventures of Superman]]'', and ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad''. It was initially a blatant stand-in for Iraq (it was led by President Marlo, who was drawn to resemble Saddam Hussein, and it was at war with a country called Kyran). Qurac sponsored a HumongousMecha attack on Metropolis and a team of superpowered terrorists called the Jihad. Superman disarmed the country's military. In a three-issue Superman story called ''The Sinbad Contract'' focused on Quraci immigrants living in Metropolis, Qurac gained a few traits from Iran (specifically, a past leader called a Shah predating Marlo's regime). This story established that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome large numbers of people had fled Qurac over its government's actions]]. In the 90s, Qurac was wiped off the face of Earth by the assassin Cheshire, using nukes she stole and ultimately detonated for the [[ForTheEvulz evilulz]]. Its appearances after ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' have been very rare (Scott Lobdell has used it to re-set [[ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily events that originally took place in Ethiopia]]), and it appeared in a Steve Orlando-written fill-in arc of ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth''.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'''s Republic of Hatay could have count as an [[AvertedTrope aversion]] because such a state actually existed in southern Turkey during the late 1930s, but it was nothing like the movie version. The EstablishingShot with the line "Republic of Hatay" clearly shows StockFootage of ''the Hagia Sofia church/mosque in Istanbul'' during dawn and is immediately followed by a meeting between the bad guys and ''the Sultan'' of the country. Anybody gets what's wrong with that?
** Plus the city of Petra (used as the grail temple) is in Jordan.
* ''Film/IronEagle'' pits a heroic kid pilot against the entire air force of the anonymous Middle Eastern country responsible for shooting down and holding his father for ransom.

* ''VideoGame/{{Call of Duty 4|ModernWarfare}}'' uses a nameless Middle Eastern country taken over by a violent, nuclear-armed and militarily aggressive nationalist regime as the setting for the first third of the game. The actual location of the country isn't made clear, as the pre-mission satellite photos jump from areas along the Red Sea suggesting Yemen, to the interior of Iran to the [[spoiler:epicenter of a nuclear bomb's explosion]] in Kuwait. It also doesn't help that the country is described as being small, which doesn't make sense if it stretches from the Red Sea to the River Euphrates a thousand miles away. Some of the missions actually seem to take place near Mecca, judging from the map. Leftover bits of old data on the disc indicate that the Qurac was going to be Saudi Arabia. The final product seems to be a mix of Saudi Arabia and Syria, with the former's backstory as an American-aligned monarchy but the latter's stock of Soviet-era weaponry, close relationship to Russia, secular nationalist dictatorship, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Assad_family ruling dynasty by the name of Al-Asad.]] [[BannedInChina The Saudi government saw through this and were less than amused.]] Even the name of the enemy army, [=OpFor=], offers no clues, as that's just short for '''Op'''posing '''Fo'''rce.

** Averted in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' - a few missions are directly stated to take place in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. Only one of them actually features you fighting against insurgents, though. The aforementioned [=OpFor=] returns as your opponents, and there are graffiti images of Al-Asad, so perhaps the country from the first game was Afghanistan. There's also a multiplayer map set in Karachi, Pakistan that has the Marines fighting said insurgents.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''VideoGame/FiftyCentBloodOnTheSand'' takes place in yet another unnamed Middle-Eastern country that the plot doesn't even bother naming it (however, the presence of a Napoleon statue implies it's either Egypt or Syria due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_campaign_in_Egypt_and_Syria his expeditions in these lands]]). What we can tell for certain is that it's an war-torn hellhole with a barely stable infrastructure, not even able to pay the title protagonist when he goes to perform there. And it proceeds to get a lot worse when Fifty embarks on a destructive quest to retrieve a diamond-encrusted skull stolen by terrorists, wrecking the country even harder in his path.

** ''[[VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany Bad Company]]'' is even more blatant about the Iraq parallels, actually going so far as to have the MEC fly the Iraqi flag, as opposed to the made-up one from ''Battlefield 2''.[[note]]The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Iraq#1991%E2%80%932004 Ba'athist-era flag]], specifically. The red-white-black horizontal tricolor is an Arab nationalist symbol and was incorporated into the flags of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Arab_colors#Former_national_flags_with_the_Pan-Arab_colors Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen]], with the only real difference between these flags being the small design in the middle of the white stripe (Iraq had three stars, Syria had three stars and then two, Yemen had one star, Egypt had a golden eagle, Libya left it plain). The brief Egypt-Syria merger known as the United Arab Republic also had a flag like this (identical to the current Syrian flag, with two stars), as did the proposed Federation of Arab Republics that sought to merge Egypt, Syria, and Libya. So the MEC's flag looking just like Iraq or Syria's would actually be logical. It can be assumed that the United Arab Republic survived and expanded in this universe.[[/note]]

** TheMovie ([[{{Film/Transformers}} 2007]]) was much nicer about it even though Qatar looks absolutely nothing like the dirt-choked slum shown in the film: Scorponok's attack was ended by a phone call to a nearby base from a little town in Qatar.

** The L4 Colonies (Home of Quatre and the Maganacs) from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''.

* ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' is set in the fictional Middle-Eastern nation of Asran (also spelled Aslan), following the exploits of a [[MultinationalTeam foreign legion]] of mercenary fighter pilots [[DuringTheWar during a civil war]]. [[spoiler: Although it's fairly clear from the descriptions of the people, and the time-period it is set in, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute that it's a fictional version]] of UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} during the [[UsefulNotes/IranianRevolution overthrow of the Shah]].]]

** In the source material, the story of Aladdin is set specifically in China. But since it's probably an Arabic folktale (its point of origin is extremely vague, and it first showed up in an eighteenth-century French translation of ''The Arabian Nights''), since 'China' is a generic term for ' country way off to the east' in Middle Eastern folktales, and since everyone in the story has Arabic names (the original storytellers presumably not being too familiar with the actual China), Disney moved it to Qurac.

** Qumran becomes Qumranistan in the ''Yes, Prime Minister'' stage revival and the subsequent [[Main/TheRemake TV remake]].

* ''VideoGame/Diablo2'' has Kehjistan, which is based on South Asia, though interestingly has plenty of {{Mayincatec}} influences, a Darkest Africa feel, and is the seat of power of a monotheistic, very Christian influenced world religion.

The modern [[ArabianNightsDays Arabian Nights]] version tends to be ruled by a [[ArabOilSheikh gobsmackingly rich Sultan and/or Sheikh]], with his doe-eyed concubines to be put at the disposal of the Honoured Effendi. Oil is compulsory. Often a CrapsaccharineWorld that still uses beheadings, hangings, and stonings for minor crimes despite the facade of a ShiningCity with CrystalSpiresAndTogas. Prototypes are UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates (especially Dubai), and other oil-rich areas in the Arabian Peninsula, along with the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}}, UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}} under Fuad I and ''especially'' Farouk (the latter's name serving as a byword for extravagant luxury in the mid-twentieth-century Anglosphere), and pre-revolutionary UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}.

A FictionalCountry in North UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, the [[UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast Middle East]], or Central or South UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}, typically UsefulNotes/{{Arab|World}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkic|Peoples}}, or Indo-Iranian, named for the fictional country that causes so much trouble in Franchise/TheDCU. There are three (often overlapping) versions:

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo military dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfModernEgypt post-monarchy Egypt]], and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]) or a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes).

* The Website/SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1173 SCP-1173]], The Islamic Republic of Eastern Samothrace. Which is either an example of EskimosArentReal that convinces you it's a example of Qurac, or an example of Qurac that convinces you that its an example of EskimosArentReal.

The modern [[ArabianNightsDays Arabian Nights]] version tends to be ruled by a [[ArabOilSheikh gobsmackingly rich Sultan and/or Sheikh]], with his doe-eyed concubines to be put at the disposal of the Honoured Effendi. Oil is compulsory. Often a CrapsaccharineWorld that still uses beheadings, hangings and stonings for minor crimes despite the facade of a ShiningCity with CrystalSpiresAndTogas. Prototypes are UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates (especially Dubai), and other oil-rich areas in the Arabian Peninsula, along with the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}} and pre-revolutionary UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}.

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo military dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, post-Ottoman Egypt and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]) or a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes).

* In ''Series/Tyrant2014'', the protagonist's father is the dictator of a fictional Middle-Eastern country called Abbudin.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'' uses a nameless Middle Eastern country taken over by a violent, nuclear-armed and militarily aggressive nationalist regime as the setting for the first third of the game. The actual location of the country isn't made clear, as the pre-mission satellite photos jump from areas along the Red Sea suggesting Yemen, to the interior of Iran to the [[spoiler:epicenter of a nuclear bomb's explosion]] in Kuwait. It also doesn't help that the country is described as being small, which doesn't make sense if it stretches from the Red Sea to the River Euphrates. Some of the missions actually seem to take place near Mecca, judging from the map. Leftover bits of old data on the disc indicate that the Qurac was going to be Saudi Arabia. The final product seems to be a mix of Saudi Arabia and Syria, with the former's backstory as an American-aligned monarchy but the latter's stock of Soviet-era weaponry, close relationship to Russia, secular nationalist dictatorship, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Assad_family ruling dynasty by the name of Assad.]] [[BannedInChina The Saudi government saw through this and were less than amused.]] Even the name of the enemy army, [=OpFor=], offers no clues, as that's just short for '''Op'''posing '''Fo'''rce.
** The final mission of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 3'' takes place in the "Arabian Peninsula", but is very obviously meant to be Dubai.
** Averted in ''Modern Warfare 2'' - a few missions are directly stated to take place in Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. Only one of them actually features you fighting against insurgents, though. The aforementioned [=OpFor=] returns as your opponents, and there are graffiti images of Al-Assad, so perhaps the country from the first game was Afghanistan. There's also a multiplayer map set in Karachi, Pakistan that has the Marines fighting said insurgents.

* ''Creator/TomClancy's VideoGame/{{HAWX}}'' has an odd sort of zig-zagging regarding an early campaign mission. The mission in question is explicitly noted to take place in Afghanistan, but the problem is it's actually one of their neighbors that's causing trouble, by harboring terrorists, and for some reason the game is extremely hesitant to actually state ''which'' neighbor these terrorists are taking refuge in, even as the mission involves you escorting a flight of bombers across the border to destroy their encampments.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' takes place in Zanzibar Land located in Central Asia. No clue why it was named after a real island off the eastern coast of equatorial Africa instead of something ending in -stan. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography It also has a jungle in it, despite none of Central Asia having jungle]] (being a good distance north of the equator and consisting primarily of desert, grassland and mountain).

Whichever version you're in, expect mosques, veils, scampering children demanding ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baksheesh Baksheesh]]'', heat, sand, and camels. And a lot of [[BeardOfEvil big-bearded]] {{Church Militant}}s (or Mosque Militants in this case, and either for or against the ruling regime) wielding [=AK47s=], shouting "Jihad!" or "Allahu Akbar!" and [[SuicideAttack blowing themselves up]] for 72 virgins. Oh, and oil. And you can [[ExoticExtendedMarriage marry up to four wives]] if you're a guy. And [[HeteronormativeCrusader no queer people]] allowed there. If you don't like [[HollywoodCuisine Kebab or Hummus]], you'd better bring your own food. Ironically, do not expect to hear ArabBeobleTalk--that trope is almost unheard of in the West, so people familiar with it generally provide a more faithful depiction of Muslim countries.

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo military dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, post-Ottoman Egypt and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]) or a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes).

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo Tin-Pot Dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, post-Ottoman Egypt and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]) or a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes).

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'''s Republic of Hatay could have count as an [[AvertedTrope aversion]] because such a state [[AluminumChristmasTrees actually existed]] in southern Turkey during the late 1930s, but it was nothing like the movie version. The EstablishingShot with the line "Republic of Hatay" clearly shows StockFootage of ''the Hagia Sofia church/mosque in Istanbul'' during dawn and is immediately followed by a meeting between the bad guys and ''the Sultan'' of the country. Anybody gets what's wrong with that?

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1173 SCP-1173]], The Islamic Republic of Eastern Samothrace. Which is either an example of EskimosArentReal that convinces you it's a example of Qurac, or an example of Qurac that convinces you that its an example of EskimosArentReal.

A FictionalCountry in North UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, the [[UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast Middle East]], or South or Central UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}, typically UsefulNotes/{{Arab|World}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkic|Peoples}}, or Indo-Iranian, named for the fictional country that causes so much trouble in Franchise/TheDCU. There are three (often overlapping) versions:

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo Tin-Pot Dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, post-Ottoman Egypt and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes) or former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]).

A FictionalCountry in North UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, the [[UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast Middle East]], or Central or South UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}, typically UsefulNotes/{{Arab|World}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkic|Peoples}}, or Indo-Iranian, named for the fictional country that causes so much trouble in Franchise/TheDCU. There are three (often overlapping) versions:

Another version has a [[TheGeneralissimo Tin-Pot Dictator]] whose pretentious title is inversely proportional to the size of his domain. His ragtag army and air force will probably be equipped with rusting Soviet surplus and manned by luckless conscripts, a few of which may be [[SociopathicSoldier genuinely crazy]]. Oil is optional, America-hating terrorists are a must. It is usually located in North Africa or the Middle East, with [[UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein Saddam]]-era Iraq, [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi Gaddafi]]-era Libya, post-Ottoman Egypt and contemporary Syria as prototypes. It may also be former UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|RussiaUkraineAndSoOn}} territory in Central Asia (UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}} appears to be the prototype here, with its now-deceased batshit insane dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]] and his only slightly less batshit insane successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurbanguly_Berdimuhamedow Gurbanguly "Arkadag" Berdimuhamedow]]) or a Muslim-majority region of South Asia ([[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Soviet invasion-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, contemporary UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}} when it was under the control of Pakistan as East Pakistan being prototypes).