History Main / Countrystan

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 some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

* Kekistan is a fictional country created by users on ''Website/FourChan''.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantustan Bantustans]] were territories in [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra apartheid-era]] South Africa (including what is now Namibia) reserved for the Black majority. They were replaced in 1994 by the current provinces.

* A mean-spirited meme about North American politics does this. The most common version of this joke is pro-liberal, it labels all the USA states that voted Democrat ("blue states") along with Canada the United States of Canada, and the states that voted Republican ("red states") Dumbfuckistan. The more uncommon pro-conservative version labels the red states (and occasionally the more conservative Canadian territories) the United States of America and the blue states and Canada as "Soviet Canuckistan".

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* One episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'' has Lucy try to get on Ricky's show by posing as a princess from the fictional country of Franistan. While discussing her plan with Ethel, they realize that a princess of a country ending in "stan" would have a different title.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' has Urzikstan, located hell-knows-where ([[ArtisticLicenseGeography Season 5 trailer places it on the Northeast side of what most probably is the Azov Sea]], and Northwest of the distinctly Eastern European city of Verdansk). Despite having the -stan suffix, it's an [[AllMuslimsAreArab Arab country]], which as noted above is unheard of in real life. What makes it even more bizarre is that, even though it is located in the Caucasus Mountains like Chechnya (so it should've been a temperate, mountainous forest country), [[ArtisticLicenseGeography the landscape is nothing but a sandy wasteland]] the likes of Syrian Desert. (Funnily enough, Syria has a region similar to Chechnya (mountains of Latakia), but Urzikstan - despite being located in the same mountain range as Chechnya - doesn't.)

* Some countries have regional divisions suffixed with "stan":

* UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} is a vaguely delineated region that encompasses parts of UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, Iran, and UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}. While not an officially recognized entity, the area is primarily populated by people of Kurdish descent; use of Kurdish language and a sense of Kurdish cultural identification is prevalent.
* Turkestan is the historical name of Central Asia. It was given that name because, as the name implies, the region has been populated mainly by Turkic-speaking peoples for a long time. When the Russians subjugated it, their part of the region was known as the "Russian Turkestan". The part conquered by the [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Qing dynasty]] was known as the "East Turkestan" and today better known as UsefulNotes/{{Xinjiang}}. The modern Kazakh city of Turkistan is a shortening of "Hazrat-i Turkistan", meaning "the Blessed One of Turkestan", because it contains the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmad Yasavi, the earliest poet to write in Turkic.

** Rajasthan (note the "h"), a state in modern India, has the same situation as Armenia in that the "stan" suffix is ''not'' a Persian borrowing. It's actually Sanskrit, which is distantly related to Persian. Not so coincidentally, it is also a productive suffix for place names.

* In the [[FrancoBelgianComics French]] [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness more-or-less hard]] Sci-Fi comic ''ComicBook/{{Gipsy}}'', there's a "Socialist Republic of Turdistan" in chapter #5.

** It's used fairly commonly in the UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench press to criticize both absurd modern government decisions and the country's {{vast|Bureaucracy}} and {{obstructive|Bureaucrat}} bureaucracy.

** It's used fairly commonly in the UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench press to criticize both absurd modern governments and the country's {{vast|Bureaucracy}} and {{obstructive|Bureaucrat}} bureaucracy.

* In the [[FrancoBelgianComics French]] [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness more-or-less hard]] Sci-Fi comic ''ComicBook/{{Gipsy}}'', there's a "Socialist Republic of Turdistan" in chapter #5.

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/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 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, along with being believed to be one of the original homelands of the Indo-Europeans. 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/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 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, along with being one of the possible original homelands of the Indo-Europeans. 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/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 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, along with one of the possible origins of the Indo-European language family. 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/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 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}} even though they are more closely related to UsefulNotes/TheFarEast culturally and ethnolinguistically is because of the Russian and Iranian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

* ''Tank [=McNamara=]'' often makes references to a backward Central Asian nation called Carjackistan.

* The ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' franchise has a counterpart of Afghanistan named "Afghulistan".

* The final season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' revolves around a peace conference between the United States and the Middle Eastern state of Kamistan.
* Turmezistan makes two appearances in the Capaldi era of ''Series/DoctorWho''. The first is in "The Zygon Invasion"/"The Zygon Inversion", in which an area within it has been taken over by militant Zygons. It then appears in "The 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.

* In the British series ''Series/{{Bugs}}'', one episode deals with learning the national language of Kazbekistan in order to [[spoiler:pilot a stealth bomber]] built there and smuggled to Great Britain.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Berzerkistan in ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}''. Its now-deposed dictator Trff Bmzklfrpz borrows some elements from former Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov, including the willy-nilly renaming of various things.
[[/folder]]

* The nations of North and South Azbaristan in ''VideoGame/JASFJanesAdvancedStrikeFighters''. The countries are named "Phrase-istan", North Azbaristan is a military dictatorship, the island they're on is mostly scrubby desert, and the voice-overs all have vaguely Arabic- or Persian-sounding accents.

** Turkish, which borrows "-stan" from Persian, refers to many countries in the world with it, not just Muslim-majority ones. There are Yunanistan (Greece), Bulgaristan (Bulgaria), Hirvatistan (Croatia), Macaristan (Hungary), Gurcistan (Georgia), Ermenistan (Armenia), and Hindistan (India).

* Rick Veitch's scabrous War On Terror satire ''[=Army@Love=]'' is set in the fictional country of Afbagistan.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' realize that the nation of "Derk-Derka-Stan" was responsible for the attack on the Panama Canal and go there to try and retaliate. However they never get to land there (as they're shot down above their airspace). Cairo, Egypt is, however, portrayed this way.

* ''ComicBook/DastardlyAndMuttley'' features an incredibly stereotypical {{Qurac}} called "Unliklistan", which is implied to have been created out of whole cloth as an effect of Unstabilium turning the world into a toon.

* ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarrior'' and ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarriorTenHammers'' has Zekistan, said to be located in Central Asia, bordering Tajikstan, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' has Urzikstan, located hell-knows-where ([[ArtisticLicenseGeography Season 5 trailer places it on the Northeast side of what most probably is the Azov Sea]], and Northwest of the distinctly Eastern European city of Verdansk).

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}} even though they are more closely related to UsefulNotes/TheFarEast ethnically and linguistically is because of the Russian and Iranian influence there; in particular, most of the RealLife Countrystans were formerly part of [[UsefulNotes/UnionOfSovietSocialistRepublics the 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 some republics of Russia for Eastern Europe).

* Kurdistan is a vaguely delineated region that encompasses parts of UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, Iran, and UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}. While not an officially recognized entity, the area is primarily populated by people of Kurdish descent; use of Kurdish language and a sense of Kurdish cultural identification is prevalent.