my %country_hash;

chomp (my @data_rows = <DATA>);
foreach my $this_country (@data_rows) {
  my $country_code = substr($this_country,0,2);
  my $country_name = substr($this_country,3);
  $country_hash{$country_code} = $country_hash{$country_name} = $this_country;
}

# ... your tie code ...
__DATA__
AF Afghanistan
AL Albania
DZ Algeria
.....