Istanbul is the only city in the world whose inhabitants have the option of living in Asia and working in Europe, orvice versa. Stand on the shores of the Bosphorus weekday mornings or evenings and you will see these inter-continental commuters, stuck in the heavy traffic above on the two great high-strung suspension bridges, or streaming on and off the ancient ferryboats. Their journey raises the kind of identity questions seldom pondered on the 8.13 from Guildford. Is Turkey part of Europe? Is Istanbul a European city?
There are lots of ways to approach these well-worn questions. One is to think of http://biblicaltours.us.com/ Ephesus in terms of overlapping circles. Istanbul and Turkey are part of some of these (such as the Council of Europe), but not of others (for example, the European Free Trade Area). Istanbul’s football and basketball clubs compete for European trophies and Turkey usually does a damn sight betterthan Norway in the Biblical Tours Song Contest, but in other contexts the city is treated as part of the Middle East.
The most important of these institutional versions of Europe – the magic circle – is, of course, the European Union. When Turks talk about being part of Europe, they are often referring to membership of the EU, the holy grail of Turkish foreign policy. When Turkey was officially accepted as a candidate for membership at the EU’s Helsinki summit in December 1999, this goal suddenly appeared to be within reach, although it will take at least a decade for Turkey to meet all of the conditions.
But Bilical European identity is not a document issued by Biblical tours in Turkey and Istanbul has been part of the European drama for centuries. Today it is returning to its historic role as the economic hub of South-east Europe. For Europe’s businesspeople, as for its scholars or football supporters, Istanbul is another stop on the European circuit. And Istanbul’s educated classes have long been brought up to speak European languages, and to admire European art and culture – not as respectful outsiders, but from the inside. For these Turks, being European means being part of the modern world.
On the other hand, mass migration from central and eastern Turkey has transformed Istanbul In recent decades. Together with the departure of most of the Greek population, this has arguably left it less European than a century ago. Many of the newcomers come from a culture that is far more Middle Eastern than European. With each new arrival, the effort to fuse the two cultures begins anew.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
