Fw: (Cyprus), Nicosia is in Europe not Asia.

John Cowan jcowan at reutershealth.com
Thu Sep 14 17:32:48 UTC 2000


Yiango writes:

> Cyprus is politically, culturally and historically part of Europe  [...]
> [snip]
> Even the Turkish-cypriot
> community, although of Anatolian origin, has a claim over European identity proved
> by a) the fact there's a lot of cultural convergence between Greek and
> Turkish Cypriots and b) Turkey's endeavors to become an EU member.

These taken together seem to me, at least, to prove too much: if Cyprus is in Europe
geographically because it is part of European civilization past, present,
and future, why then so is Turkey.  (Before 1914, the Ottoman Empire was
traditionally treated as a European power.)  And yet all but a small part of Turkey
is indisputably in Asia, geographically considered.

> With the above quotation, I'd like to contest the legitimacy and
> validity of purely geographical frontiers that are used in segmenting
> the globe (because frontiers are in themselves imaginary, determined on
> the negotiation table of political powers, etc.).

No hierarchical scheme is or can be perfect.

-- 
There is / one art                   || John Cowan <jcowan at reutershealth.com>
no more / no less                    || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things                   || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness                 \\ -- Piet Hein



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