History Main / Countrystan

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

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

* ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}''

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

* The ''[[VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals SOCOM US Navy SEAL]]'' series has the nation of Adjikistan, first featured as an ally of the West before it's revealed that they've been doing nasty things to its own citizens. It's located near Afghanistan and Pakistan.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, Klatchistan serves as the FantasyCounterpartCulture of Afghanistan.

** '''Gumball''': Send you to a wedding in Somewhere-stan with you as the bride

* ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' has Uncle Duke's public relations firm hired to improve the image of the brutal lout Trff Bmzklfrpz, President-for-life of Berserkistan. No amount of spin-doctoring can save Trff's case; he ends up deposed and living with Duke.

* Played for laughs in ''Film/AustinPowers International Man of Mystery''. Dr. Evil steals a nuclear warhead from a breakaway Russian republic called Kreplachistan. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreplach Kreplach]] are a type of dumpling.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Kekistan is a fictional country created by users on Website/FourChan.

* On this very Wiki, the PlayingWith.QuoteMine page uses a movie called ''Conflicts in Troperistan'' for its examples.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Bolbi Stroganovsky is a ForeignExchangeStudent from Backhairistan.

* Sikh separatists has called for a Sikh-based state known as "Khalistan". India doesn't tolerate this and calls anyone backing this as a separatist.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''

For a seemingly insignificant region, Central Asia has had historical significance, being the homelands of apples and many HordesFromTheEast, yet also a melting pot for UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad. Why we now associate Central Asia with {{Ruritania}} and {{Qurac}} is because of the Russian and Persian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Russian Empire]] and [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics Soviet Union]], and Central Asia was primarily inhabited by Iranian peoples before the Turkic peoples arrived from East Asia and became the dominant population of the region, with much of the region being part of many Persian empires and dynasties even afterwards. Thus InterchangeableAsianCultures takes effect and the -stan suffix is also sometimes applied to Middle Eastern and even Eastern European countries in fiction, even though there are few such places in RealLife (UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} being the only Middle Eastern exception, and Kazakhstan and some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

For a seemingly insignificant region, Central Asia has had historical significance, being the homelands of apples and many HordesFromTheEast, yet also a melting pot for UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad. Why we now associate Central Asia with {{Ruritania}} and {{Qurac}} is because of the Russian and Persian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Russian Empire]] and [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics Soviet Union]], and Central Asia was primarily inhabited by Iranian peoples before the Turkic peoples arrived from East Asia and became the dominant population of the region, with much of the region being part of many Persian empires and dynasties even afterwards and UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}} still being majority Iranian and speaking a dialect of Persian as their primary language. Thus InterchangeableAsianCultures takes effect and the -stan suffix is also sometimes applied to Middle Eastern and even Eastern European countries in fiction, even though there are few such places in RealLife (UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} being the only Middle Eastern exception, and Kazakhstan and some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

For a seemingly insignificant region, Central Asia has had historical significance, being the homelands of apples and many HordesFromTheEast, yet also a melting pot for UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad. Why we now associate Central Asia with {{Ruritania}} and {{Qurac}} is because of the Russian and Persian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Russian Empire]] and [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics Soviet Union]], and Central Asia was primarily inhabited by Iranian peoples before the Turkic peoples arrived from East Asia and became the dominant population of the region, with much of the region being part of many Persian empires and dynasties even afterwards. Thus InterchangeableAsianCultures takes effect and the -stan suffix is also sometimes applied to Middle Eastern and even Eastern European countries in fiction, even though there are few such places in RealLife (UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} being the only Middle Eastern exception, and Kazakhstan and some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

For a seemingly insignificant region, Central Asia has had historical significance, being the homelands of many HordesFromTheEast, yet also a melting pot for UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad. Why we now associate Central Asia with {{Ruritania}} and {{Qurac}} is because of the Russian and Persian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Russian Empire]] and [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics Soviet Union]], and Central Asia was primarily inhabited by Iranian peoples before the Turkic peoples arrived from East Asia and became the dominant population of the region, with much of the region being part of many Persian empires and dynasties even afterwards. Thus InterchangeableAsianCultures takes effect and the -stan suffix is also sometimes applied to Middle Eastern and even Eastern European countries in fiction, even though there are few such places in RealLife (UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} being the only Middle Eastern exception, and Kazakhstan and some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

* There are seven countries with this name in RealLife: Afghanistan, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Kyrgyzstan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}. The latter five are self-explanatory; Afghanistan means "land of the Afghans", Afghan being the historical name for ethnic Pashtuns, who form a plurality of the country's population; while Pakistan is an [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] of "Punjab, Afghania[[note]]Now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly the North Western Frontier[[/note]], Kashmir, Sindh, Balochistan", the names of the regions making up the country (it also coincides with the Persian word for "land of the pure"). The Central Asian ex-Soviet countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have on occasion been collectively referred to as "The Stans".

* In ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'', Pig dug a hole to "Kukistan". Unfortunately the natives wanted to eat Pig for dinner. In the first strip of the story arc, characters comment to each other that Kukistan doesn't exist because the editors felt that digging to the actual country mentioned would offend their central Asian readers. As a result, the strip was digitally altered.

* Sometimes, Western cities with a large Muslim population will have a derogatory nickname with a "-stan" or "-istan" suffix, such as "Londonistan" (London, UK) and "Dearbornistan" (Dearborn, US), which usually invokes [[{{Eurabia}} xenophobic stereotypes against Muslim immigrants]].

* On the Balkans, adding the "-stan" suffix to one's country name (such as a Bulgarian saying "Bulgaristan") has a derogatory undertone, referring to the late years of Ottoman rule which is remembered as backwards, corrupt and cruel. "Absurdistan" above is used in the same context.

* Turmezistan makes two appearances in the Capaldi era of ''Series/DoctorWho''. The first is in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E7TheZygonInvasionThe Zygon Invasion]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E8TheZygonInversion The Zygon Inversion]]", in which an area within it has been taken over by militant Zygons. It then appears in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorldThe Pyramid at the End of the World]]", in which it's suddenly become a major geopolitical flashpoint, with American, Russian and Chinese military forces openly confronting each other there.

For a seemingly insignificant region, Central Asia has had historical significance, being the homelands of many HordesFromTheEast, yet also a melting pot for UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad. Why we now associate Central Asia with {{Ruritania}} and {{Qurac}} is because of the Russian and Iranian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Russian Empire]] and [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics Soviet Union]], and Central Asia was primarily inhabited by Iranian peoples before the Turkic peoples arrived from East Asia and became the dominant population of the region, with much of the region being part of many Persian empires and dynasties even afterwards. Thus InterchangeableAsianCultures takes effect and the -stan suffix is also sometimes applied to Middle Eastern and even Eastern European countries in fiction, even though there are few such places in RealLife (UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} being the only Middle Eastern exception, and Kazakhstan and some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).