(Cyprus), Nicosia is in Europe not Asia.

[Paul Eggert]

Antoine Leca <Antoine.Leca at renault.fr> writes:

> Paul Eggert wrote:
>
> > I don't know of any current official dividing line between Europe and
> > Asia [...]  Geographically, Cyprus is
> > clearly in Asia, and this has long been recognized.
> 
> Sorry Paul: you are not consistent. Either you do not know of a dividing
> line (as I do not, hence I do not comment on the issue). Or you do know
> that "Cyprus is clearly in Asia", which in fact means that you know
> of some line.

What I was trying to say (perhaps infelicitously) is that the
geographic dividing line is fuzzy in places (e.g. are the Mugadzhar
mountains in Europe or in Asia?) but Cyprus is pretty clearly on the
Asian side.  Here's a quote that states things fairly accurately, I
think:

   Geographically, Cyprus is considered to be a part of West Asia (this
   Mediterranean island is much closer to the mainland of Asia than to
   that of Europe). However, due to cultural, demographic, and historical
   reasons, it is often considered as a part of Europe.

   http://www.ozemail.com.au/~natinfo/asia3-2.htm#cyprus

However, after some more research I agree that the point is
disputable.  In particular, the Encyclopedia Britannica flatly says
that Cyprus is part of Europe.  See
<http://www.britannica.com/seo/e/europe/>.


> The problem with Cyprus is that, at least as he said, Yiango was
> unable to find Cyprus TZ because it cannot found it under
> Europe/Nicosia.

Yes, that's perhaps the best practical argument for putting it under
Europe.  I guess you have talked me into adding something like this:

# Classically, Cyprus belongs to Asia; e.g. see Herodotus, Histories, I.72.
# However, for various reasons many users expect to find it under Europe.
Link	Asia/Nicosia	Europe/Nicosia