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Specific domain as established by ISO 3166-3, which represent names of former/non-current countries which have been divided, merged, or changed in name. The definition of the term "formerly used country name" is: name of a country, dependency, or other area of particular geopolitical interest removed from ISO 3166-1 since the first edition in 1974. There are several different reasons why entries can be removed from ISO 3166-1. For example, they can be removed when: a country changes a significant part of its name; a country is divided into two or more new ones; two or more countries merge. The code format for formerly used country names has a length of four alphabetical characters (alpha-4 code elements). The first two characters are the original alpha-2 code element representing the former country name removed from ISO 3166-1. Characters three and four are allocated according to rules established in ISO 3166-3. Some sample instances are as follows: The name BURMA (BU) was changed to MYANMAR (MM) in 1989. The code element for the formerly used country name for BURMA is BUMM; The country CZECHOSLOVAKIA (CS) was divided into CZECH REPUBLIC (CZ) and SLOVAKIA (SK) in 1993. The code element for the formerly used country name CZECHOSLOVAKIA is CSHH. HH meaning that no single successor country exists; The countries DEMOCRATIC YEMEN (YD) and YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC (YE) merged into REPUBLIC OF YEMEN (YE) in 1990. The code element for the change would be YDYE. |