We've already looked at some pretty weird borders
in previous episodes in this series.
Like panhandles that stretch out for
hundreds of kilometers away from
their parent country.
Or islands that change what country
they belong to every 6 months.
But there are still countless other strange borders that exist in the world.
And in this episode,
we're going to talk about a few of those.
To begin with something a little ridiculous,
let's head over to Turkey,
And by that, I mean this rectangle
located inside of Syria
that's 26 kilometers south of the Turkish border.
You see, this rectangle
that is official Turkish territory surrounded by Syria,
is the tomb of a man named
Suleyman Shah,
who is the grandfather of a guy named Osman I,
who is the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
He was buried in Syria
and for various geopolitical reasons,
his tomb has remained as sovereign Turkish territory.
Despite it, well.. being located inside of Syria.
This has gotten particularly awkward lately,
with the Syrian Civil War raging all around the tomb site.
And in 2015, the Turkish government
actually launched a military operation into Syria
to recover the remains of the long dead Suleyman Shah
and rescue the few dozen Turkish soldiers
that were defending the site.
The Turks then moved the burial site
just 180 meters south of the Turkish border
so they could keep a better eye on it.
But the Turkish government insists
that this move is only temporary
and that the original burial site is still
fully sovereign Turkish territory.
Next, we're going to shift over just a little bit
to this weird-looking blob
which is part of the United Arab Emirates.
It's home to a small village of about 40 buildings.
The village however is completely surrounded
by territory that belongs to Oman.
And this Omani territory is home to about 3,000 people.
But even stranger,
this Omani territory is further
completely surrounded
by the rest of the United Arab Emirates.
Looking a bit further to the north,
and we can also see another exclave of Oman
called the Musandam Peninsula.
This strange situation means that
Emirati citizens living in this territory
called Nahwa
have to cross through 2 different border checkpoints
just to enter their own country.
Once when they leave the UAE into Oman and then
once again when they leave Oman back into the UAE
and vice versa.
On the flip side,
it's possible for somebody in mainland Oman
who travels to the other side of Oman
at the Musadan Peninsula
to go from being in Oman
to being in the UAE,
to being back in Oman,
to being back in the UAE,
to being back in Oman again,
to then be back in the UAE once again
and then finally arrive back inside Oman.
Switching back and forth between the countries
a total of 6 times.
But even more of complicated of a situation than this
is surprisingly Cyprus,
which if you ever take a glance at their flag,
you would think everything looks clean and orderly.
But, that's far FAR from the case.
There are actually 4 territorial entities on the island.
The country that almost everybody recognizes
that this not-so-accurate flag belongs to
called The Republic of Cyprus.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north
that is recognized by only one other country,
Turkey.
Two separate fully sovereign British military bases
here and here.
And then finally a United Nations buffer zone
that stretches across most of the island
that is occupied by the UN peacekeeping forces.
This strange situation has a very complicated history
but the very short version of it
is that Cyprus became independent in 1960,
but the British were allowed on to some of the
territory that became their current military bases.
Cyprus almost became annexed by Greece
but Turkey invaded to stop that from happening.
Captured a bunch of territory and then declared
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
as an independent country.
And then the UN built a wall across the entire island
to separate the 2 sides,
and to guarantee an awkward peace.
And awkward it continues to be
as the Turkish Republic has a strange exclave over here
that is completely walled off from the rest of the island.
The eastern British military base
has 3 enclaves of the Republic of Cyrus inside of it.
Which means that Cypriot citizens inside of them,
are totally surrounded by British territory
and have to cross through several kilometers
of an active foreign military base
just to visit the rest of their own country.
Finally, this large chunk of the Republic of Cyprus
is totally cut off from the rest of the country
since it's bordered by the UN buffer zone in the north
and the UK military base to the west
which makes just taking a boat
possibly the easiest way of getting to the other part of the country.
Finally for this video, we move to perhaps,
the most complicated series of borders in the entire world.
This mess in central Asia
between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Upon taking a closer look,
we can see that there are 4 Uzbek enclaves located
entirely inside of Kyrgyzstan,
one Kyrgyz enclave inside of Uzbekistan,
2 Tajik enclaves located inside of Kyrgyzstan,
and one more Tajik enclave located inside of Uzbekistan.
The reason that these exist in 2 words is
Joseph Stalin.
And two of the enclaves are particularly awkward.
The Kyrgyz enclave inside of Uzbekistan
is home to over 1,000 people,
but has no post office,
no government buildings,
no banks,
and the only employment opportunities are at a small general store.
The enclave is totally surrounded by the Uzbek military
and even though many Kyrgyz citizens living inside of it
have petitioned the Kyrgyzstan government to return to the mainland,
the government has rejected allowing anybody inside to return
out of fear of losing the incredibly valuable enclave
to Uzbekistan.
But perhaps the strangest
and most insane border in the entire world
that makes the least amount of sense
is this territory called Sokh.
Which is a fully sovereign territory of Uzbekistan
that is completely surrounded on all sides by Kyrgyzstan,
all the while
99% of the population inside of it are ethnic Tajiks.
The world can be quite a mess in some places.
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