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.
we call it the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and NE Africa
but if someone said “Eastern Mediterranean” or “Southwest Asia” I suppose I’d know what they meant
Maybe Asia Minor can make a come back too
Asia Minor is more like Turkiye, North Macedonia, the Baltics