I see a lot of people saying that countries like Israel, Latvia, Belgium and Dubai are not real countries, but how are they not? They seem to meet the threshold. How are they any less real then any other country?

    • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
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      4 days ago

      The emirate of Dubai a state (not a country)inside the UAE similar to how California is a state inside the USA.

        • Lemmisaur@lemmy.zip
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          4 days ago

          Dubai was an independent country before 1971. (Although sort of under the British since 1833, the exact details varied over time.)

          Either that or you’re thinking about Djibouti.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            4 days ago

            Yeah, it’s a bit complicated. They retain some level of sovereignty within the UAE as I understand it, unlike Califonia, which since the civil war has basically been just a subnational division.

          • Justathroughdaway@lemmy.worldOP
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            3 days ago

            Giant mix up here. When I read “Emirate” I thought that was a Arabic word for state. My bad.

            A lot of Arabic discourse I seen relates to the legitimacy of certain Arab countries. Kind of like the Balkans. There’s a belief that Qatar, Kuwait and even Palestine aren’t real countries.

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