southeastern europe

Tuesday 19 May 2009 , 18.00, Spyros Sofos (Senior Research Fellow, Kingston University): From Empire to nation: Space and landscape in the Greek and Turkish nation building projects. Venue : SOAS, 22 Russell Square, Room T102. The Greek-Turkish Encounters Series is series of lectures and events organised by the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, at King’s, and the Turkish Studies Programme, at SOAS. The aim of this series is to explore and bring to the fore points of contact between Greek and Turkish cultures in an atmosphere of critical inquiry. Attendance is open to all.

Discussion on the topic of "Nationalism in Greece and Turkey" on the occasion of the publication of the book Το βάσανο της Ιστορίας by Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos. Discussants: Lena Divani , associate professor of foreign policy history at the University of Athens, vice president of the Greek Book Centre Spyros A. Sofos , senior research fellow at the European Research Centre, Kingston University Ioannis Stefanidis , professor of diplomatic history at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Umut Özkırımlı , director of Turkish-Greek Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University - senior research fellow at the Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics

I have been meaning to post a few thoughts on the results of the parliamentary elections in Northern Cyprus since the eve of the vote (just as I was hoping to do in the case of the Turkish local elections) but, as this is a volatile time, events seem to be overtaking any attempt to keep track of developments in Southeastern Europe. The outcome of the North Cyprus elections confirms the fears of people like me, who had supported - wit h some reservations - the yes vote on the Annan Plan back in 2004 that a Greek-Cypriot 'no' vote might make a rapprochement between the two communities very difficult. 2004 had presented a unique opportunity for an agreement - however imperfect that might have been. I have always maintained that provisions that sanctioned ethnic segregation were unworkable as they did not take into account the dynamics of closer contact: how can you classi fy mixed families, children of mixed backgrounds through a constitution that is blind to these complexitie