From Antagonism to Partnership on and across the Greek-Turkish Border: Redefining the Self and the Other on the Borders of EU?

Since the early 20^th century, the Greek-Turkish border played both a symbolic and material role for the nation-building process of both states, pitting one against the other as a security threat to their national unity. Recently this border has increasingly become an important node for new migrants from Africa, Asia and Middle East trying to enter the EU. Contrary to the recent securitization of the border as an EU border to stop this new migratory movement, in the last two decades there has also been a trend towards new cross-border interactions between Greek and Turkish citizens, mainly in economic, political and cultural fields. This paper aims to understand the impact of what I call the semipermeable form of the border on the notion of the Self and the Other on both Greek and Turkish sides of the border.

Based on content analysis of 1 local, 1 national and 1 minority newspaper from both Greek and Turkish sides, this paper will trace the change over time in the framing of the borders of territory and identity that are shaped in relation to local, regional and global forces. It is my contention that examining the everyday life along the borderlands in a historical comparative perspective is crucial not only to capture the shift of the border from a site of antagonism against each other to a site of partnership against the newcomers but also to draw attention to the limits of the notion of the Other that carry remnants of past exclusions.