Listening to an Iranian official describe his region as “West Asia” got me wondering if the word “Middle East” is on the outs and why. I suspect Middle East is eurocentric for some reason, but West Asia also preserves Europe as a continent, which is Eurocentric in its own way because Europe is not a continent and never was. If we’re calling anything West Asia, it should be Spain and Portugal.
How is Asia even a continent? And Europe is a continent? These are political lines but all one continent. I could have sworn that continent was once called Eurasia.
And yes, north of Asia is Russia. West of Asia is Europe (and Africa, which is another continent).
Eastern Europe is just the middle of the continent. It’s eastern Europe that is west of Russia.