The eq operator does not work like that, but you can use a regular expression:
my $pattern = join ('|', @countries);
if ($country =~ /^($pattern)$/) {
   print "True\n"
}

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Or you could use a for loop, or map
update: inserted parens

In reply to Re: Using the 'if' statement... by cdarke
in thread Using the 'if' statement... by rsriram

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