[tz] [PROPOSED] New zone Asia/Atyrau

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/07/2016 11:07 PM, Stepan Golosunov wrote:
> typo

Thanks, fixed in the attached.

> How is it determined whether to use Asia/ or Europe/ ?
> (This question is also relevant for Asia/Oral.)

The short version: I merely eyeballed it on a world map.

The long story is more-complicated. For places like Cyprus and Georgia I 
have been relying on Herodotus, one of the earliest somewhat-reliable 
sources. (Among other things Herodotus was rightly critical of the idea 
of separating Europe from Asia!) Although his Histories mentions neither 
Oral nor Atyrau, I would say his dividing line between Europe and Asia 
-- the Phasis (now the Rioni), presumably to the Caspian and then north 
-- would make Oral and Atyrau more Asian than European.

Later classical writers consistently set the boundary further west: 
Ptolemy says the boundary went up the Mæotic Tanais (now the Don) to its 
source in what is now Novomoskovsk, and then straight north, which puts 
Oral and Atyrau firmly in Asia.

Nowadays although the boundary is still not well-defined, the CIA and 
the National Geographic Society both use the Ural River, which would put 
central Oral (barely) in Europe and central Atyrau (barely) in Asia. If 
we followed the CIA and NGS strictly, we would leave Atyrau alone but 
move Oral to Europe. However, I'm inclined to leave these names alone, 
as stability is a virtue and the names are arguably OK as-is.

>> +			4:00	-	+04	1930 Jun 21
> 1919 decree
> (http://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_russia-1919-02-08.html
> and in Byalokoz) lists Ural river (plus 10 versts on its left bank) in
> the third time belt (before 1930 this means +03).

OK, thanks, the attached proposed patch changes this to +03 for both 
Atyrau and Oral.

>
> http://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_russia-1956-05-28.html
> (implemented on 1957-03-01?) says that 1919 time belt borders became
> inconvenient and renders new time belt borders listing Guryev and West
> Kazakhstan oblasts in the fourth time belt (which after 1930 means
> +05).

Yes, we already have +05 there for both Atyrau and Oral, so we should be OK.

>> +			5:00	-	+05	1981 Oct  1
>> +			6:00	-	+06	1982 Apr  1
> Are there any sources for these suspicious transitions?
> (Given that 1981 generally introduced summer time in April and was
> supposed to remove exceptions in October, not to add them.)

I have only Shanks and Pottenger, which is not very reliable. Do you 
think it would be more accurate to remove or rewrite these transitions?

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