Kosovo

  • Contested territories
  • Administered by Kosovo
  • Claimed by Serbia
  • Area 10,887 km2
  • Population 1,809,280
  • Capital Pristina
  • Divided city Mitrovica
  • Declaration of Independence 17 February 2008

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It used to be an autonomous region of Yugoslavia, but after the breakup of this socialist republic and the war of 1998-1999, the Kosovo Albanian majority of the population strived for sovereignty. Kosovo's independence is recognized by around 110 UN member states, among which the United States and most EU-countries. However, there is also a strong opposition against this independence, expressed by Serbia but also by Russia, China and Spain. The Kosovo Serb majority in the northern part of Kosovo refuses to be part of this new country. The Ibar River, running through the city of Mitrovica, marks the dividing line.

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Transnistria

Transnistria is a small strip of land located between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine. It declared independence in 1990, but has only been recognized as a sovereign entity by—the also unrecognized—South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The United Nations still legally considers Transnistria a part of the Republic of Moldova. The most well known company in Transnistria is called Sheriff—it owns a chain of petrol stations, a chain of supermarkets, a TV channel, a publishing house, a construction company, a Mercedes-Benz dealership, an advertising agency, a spirits factory, two bread factories, a mobile phone network, the football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol and its newly built Sheriff Stadium.

Paracel Islands

The Paracel Islands, also known as Xisha Islands (Chinese) or Hoang Sa Archipelago (Vietnamese), are an archipelago of about 130 small islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The islands are under the control of China, but are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. The French colonial government tried to incorporate the archipelago into French Indochina, but the Chinese took control over the islands after the ‘Battle of the Paracel Islands’ in 1974. It is home to the largest blue sinking hole in the world: the Dragon Hole.

San Escobar

San Escobar is a non-existent country and emerged out of a blunder by the former Polish minister of foreign affairs, Witold Waszczykowski. In January 2017, Waszczykowski told reporters that, in a bid for a non-permanent seat for Poland on the UN Security Council, he had meetings with officials from various countries, including meeting some Caribbean nations ‘perhaps for the first time in the history of our diplomacy. For example with countries such as San Escobar or Belize’. Soon after his mistake, San Escobar got a flag, currency, maps and a Twitter-account. There were even travel agencies that advertised holidays on the sandy beaches of San Escobar. Almost a year later, the Polish Minister lost his job due to a rearrangement of the government.