Asia Occidental

"Asia Occidental o del Oeste, también llamada Asia del Suroeste (o Suroccidental), es una subregión definida por la ONU que abarca la zona Occidental de Asia, incluyendo los países del Cáucaso. Es prácticamente equivalente a las expresiones Oriente Medio o Cercano Oriente, que describen la posición geográfica en relación con la distancia desde Europa más que a una localización dentro de Asia. Debido a que esto se percibe como eurocentrismo y las organizaciones internacionales como las Naciones Unidas, han reemplazado los términos Oriente Medio u Oriente Próximo por Asia Occidental. Esta región y Europa son nombradas colectivamente como Eurasia Occidental."

"Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it significantly overlaps with the Middle East (or Near East), the main difference being the exclusion of Egypt (which would be counted as part of North Africa), and the inclusion of the Transcaucasia. The term is sometimes used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics. The total population of Western Asia is estimated at about 300 million as of 2015. In an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the "Asiatic" or "Western Asian" cultures as opposed to Ancient Egypt. As a geographic concept, "Western Asia" includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian peninsula, Anatolia, Iran, Armenian Highlands and South Caucasus. The Sinai Peninsula belongs to Western Asia, making Egypt a transcontinental country. However, the term "Western Asia" is mostly used as a convenient division of contemporary sovereign states into a manageable number of world regions for statistical purposes; it is sometimes used instead of the more geopolitical term "Middle East", for example by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) statistics office or the Government of Canada. The term is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally agreed-upon definition. The government of Canada and also, for example, the National Geographic Style Manual only includes the nations of Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Oman, and Yemen as part of West Asia, excluding Israel and West Bank/Gaza. As a further example, Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) includes Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, Yemen, and West Bank/Gaza. The United Nations Industrial Organization includes Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan when listing the nations of the West Asia region, and leaves Turkey and Georgia out. The UNSD leaves out Iran but includes all other commonly West Asian listed nations."