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Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia (largely overlapping with the Middle East) is the southwestern portion of Asia. The term Western Asia is sometimes used in writings about the archeology and the late prehistory of the region, and in the United Nations subregion geoscheme. Unlike the Middle East, which is broadly-defined to include several North African countries such as Egypt, Southwestern Asia is a purely geographical term that is reserved for the southwestern extremities of the Asian continent. Southwest Asia is partly co-terminous with the traditional European names the Middle East and the Near East, both of which describe the regions' geographical position in relation to Europe rather than their location within Asia. The term Western Asia has become the preferred term of use for the Middle East by international organizations (most notably the United Nations[1]) and also in countries to the east of the region, such as India and Australia, because of the perceived Eurocentrism of the historical term Middle East.[citation needed] In terms of cultural and political geography, the Middle East often includes North African countries, particularly Egypt. The United Nations includes Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in Western Asia. However, these countries also lie in regions that straddle both Asia and Europe, and have sociopolitical ties to both. The Asian part of the Arab world (including Arabia proper) is called the Mashreq in Arabic.
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