In a previous article (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=48825), we insisted on the current – very problematic – European disregard of the Islamic dimension of the European History and Culture. In this feature, we will refer to subjects going back to pre-Islamic times that are also misunderstood or overlooked in Europe, thus driving academia and statesmen, intellectuals and diplomats to a completely erroneous perception of the European History and of Turkey's (not exclusively) European Identity.

In fact, as late as the Early Middle Ages, the present Turkish territory was culturally 'Europe' and the present Scandinavian, Central European, British, Iberian and Russian territory was culturally 'Asia'. The Origins of Europe in their totality are to be found in Turkey.

Birthplace of European Cultures is Turkey

Before an average European citizen expresses surprise about the Turkish candidacy for European Union membership on the grounds that Turkey would be the first Muslim country to become member, there are further misconceptions, false impressions and mistaken beliefs in his/her mind than just the wrong assumption that Islam is irrelevant of Europe and Europe is irrelevant of Europe.

What is actually accepted by scholars but not diffused among general readership in Europe is the very real truth that the birthplace of numerous European Cultures is Turkey. Speaking of the EU candidate country, we must bear in mind that we talk about
a. the land of Troy and the legendary Trojan war,
b. the cities – states of Ionia,
c. the territory of the Attalid dynasty of Alexander's Epigones,
d. the headquarters of Marc Anthony, Proconsul of the Roman Empire to the East (Tarsus),
e. an essential part of the Roman Empire,
f. the backbone of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, and last but not least,
g. the circumference where lie Thyateira (Akhisar), Ephesos (Efes), Pergamon (Bergama), Sardeis (Sart), Smyrna (Izmir), Laodicea (Denizli), and Philadelphia (Alasehir), the Seven Cities – Christian Churches of John's Revelation.

Homer

Turkey is the birthplace of Homer, the land where were first heard the verses 'Menin aeide, Thea Peleiadeo Achileos oulomenen ' and 'Andra moi ennepe, Mousa polutropon os mala polla' with which start the two famous epics, Iliad and Odyssey, that caused so much respect, encouraged so much study, stirred so much enthusiasm, and stimulation so much imagination throughout Europe in the Antiquity, Medieval Era, Renaissance, and Modern Times. Whereas several cities contended about Homer's birthplace, with Izmir (Smyrna) prevailing, it makes no sense to argue about the eventuality of the island of Chios (Greek since 1912) being the true one, since the Aegean Sea islands were at Homer's times the cultural periphery of Ionia that lies entirely on Modern Turkey's soil.

Pre-Socratic Philosophy

If Philosophy is a point of distinction between free thought of an individual and the systematic thought of a priesthood (such as the Assyrian – Babylonian clergy), and we admit that philosophy was developed characteristically in Europe during different historical periods thus differentiating the continent from Asia, Africa and Pre-Colombian America (although this approach has recently receded), then we have to agree that Philosophy is born in Ionia – Turkey. The Pre-Socratic philosophers who set the foundations of the philosophical thought in Ancient Greece and Rome originate from Ionia too. The native city of Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes was Miletos (Milet), whereas that of Heraclitus was Ephesos (Efes) – all in Turkey.

Historiography

Herodotus' works stamped the Greco-Roman world, being the reason later generations called him 'Father of History'. Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus (today's Bodrum in Turkey) and was a Carian, who was incorporated within the Greek world before traveling a lot and writing his anti-Persian, pro-Athenian history. History had started more than 2000 years before Herodotus in both Mesopotamia and Egypt, and was highly revered and cultivated in 2nd millennium BCE Anatolia and Canaan, but Herodotus' works were very dominant among Greeks, Romans, and Medieval Europeans. European Historiography started therefore also on Turkish territory.

Aineias – Aeneid of Virgil

How could one dissociate the city of Aineias/Aeneas, Troy in today's Turkey, from Europe, when it is widely accepted that Virgil, the illustrious Roman epic poet who composed Aeneid around the model of his Trojan hero, is the real Father of the West?

Here we do not refer only to the famous German intellectual Theodore Haecker who wrote a book entitled 'Virgil: Father of the West' (1931), but to many others who all proclaimed the venerated Roman poet as Father of the Western World, encompassing T. S. Eliot and Kierkegaard.

Christianity

Christianity's crucial years of formation hinge to large extent on Asia Minor – Anatolia, i.e. today's Turkey. Basic concepts and narratives of John's Revelation reproduce millennia long Hittite literary patterns, such as the Ullikummi (Hittite myth of the Anti-Christ) rising from the sea to confront Tasmisu in a universal outcome battle. John spent several years in the west of modern Turkey, and particularly in Ephesus (along with Virgin Mary), before sailing to nearby island of Patmos to compile the Revelation in which, as we already said, includes messages to the Seven Churches of Anatolia.

On both, European and Asiatic, shores of Turkey, Istanbul perpetuates the religious – political image of a great capital of two empires, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) and the Ottoman. Nova Roma -  Constantinople / Istanbul remains in the World History the top (albeit not unique) example of the capital of an empire that becomes, after the empire's collapse, capital of the invader (and successor)!

All Europeans of any denomination, belief, ideology and/or faith have to bear in mind that the second Ecumenical Council, held in 381 in Constantinople, and the fourth Ecumenical Synod, which brought (in 451) together 630 representatives of the Christian Church in the city of Chalcedon, on Turkey's Asiatic coast, determined the significance of the Patriarchate of Constantinople - "New Rome", granting equal privileges (isa presbeia) to the Patriarch of New Rome as those stipulated for the throne of old Rome, the old capital of the Empire. For what is Christianity in Europe, Constantinople – Istanbul is of the same importance as Rome.

At the same time, Turkish territory includes other key toponymics for the European Christian culture: Antioch, Caesarea of Cappadocia, Edessa of Osrhoene – Urhoy – Urfa, Myra, Nisibis, Tur Abdin, Harran, etc.

Antioch, called the Golden, does not relate only to the Seleucid Empire of Alexander's Epigones of which it was the capital, but also alludes to
1) the evangelizing by Peter,
2) the preaching by Barnabas and Paul,
3) the establishment of the fourth Patriarchate's seat,
4) the long tradition and the multiple, invaluable contributions of the School of Antioch to the Christian Patristic, and
5) the Latin Principality of the times of the Crusades.

Kayseri – Caesarea of Cappadocia: Epicenter of Europe

If Christians believe that God is One and Three at the same time, they have to bear in mind that the Christian dogma of Trinity was conceived and formulated first at the central Anatolian plateau of Anatolia, and more precisely at Caesarea of Cappadocia, where Bishop Basil (Saint of the Orthodox Church that dedicated to him the first day of the year, January 1st, for commemoration) compiled 'Peri tou Agiou Pneumatos' (On the Holy Spirit). This did not happen either in France or in Norway, but in Turkey.

Edessa of Osrhoene - Urhoy, founded by Seleucos, was for more than a millennium the epicenter of Eastern Christianity. Bastion of Monophysitism and original milieu of Nestorianism, Urhoy – Urfa is more important for European Christianity because of Apostle Thomas' preaching, the early Christian Council (in 197), and the first Crusaders' state (established in 1098 by Baldwin who became King of Jerusalem in 1100).

If European Christians celebrate St Claus with fervent traditions, they have to recall that the entire story starts in Myra (today's Demre in SW Turkey), where Santa Claus was no other than Bishop Nicholas of Myra (died 346) whose relics have been transported to Bari (Italy) in 1086 by merchants fearful of the Seljuk advance.

Nusaybin - Nisibis (Antiochia Mygdonia) brings to European mind several great moments of Roman – Persian wars (the expeditions of Lucullus, Trajan, and Septimius Severus, and the defeat of Julian), plus the emergence of the Nestorian Christianity (the 'School of Nisibis').

One should summarize the subject by saying that all the Christian Councils and Synods that took place during the first millennium were held (with the exception of the secondary importance Council of Carthage – 394) on present Turkish soil, namely
1) the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325),
2) the Council of Laodicea (364),
3) the First Council of Constantinople (381),
4) the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431),
5) the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451),
6) the Second Council of Constantinople (553),
7) the Third Council of Constantinople (680 – 1), and
8) the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869 – 670).

Anti-Christian movements of the Middle Ages

On the other hand, the theoretical – philosophical reaction against and the rejection of Christianity, as expressed in various movements that spread throughout Europe, started to large extent on Turkish territory. The origin of the Cathars, Albigenses, and later 'heresies' in Western Europe, namely the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and the Free Masons, and the source of the Patarins and the Bogomiles in Southeastern and Eastern Europe goes back to the Paulicians, the Iconoclasts - Eikonomachoi (the Iconomachy movement) and other 'Manicheist' (according to defamatory Byzantine terminology) movements fomented in Anatolia (Turkey).

Conclusions

Arriving at the end of this point, we realize that Europe's confines are to be found outside the European continent, and that viewed through strictly geographical approach, the Modern European Culture seems stripped of the birthplace of some of its most influential dimensions, expressions and components. For long periods either in the Antiquity or in the Middle Ages, the present Turkish territory was the heart of Europe and the intellectual – cultural atelier from were emanated the fundamental trends that shaped the European continent down to our days. Mr. Markus Soeder and his ignorant colleagues, the various racist, Anti-Turkish politicians and statesmen of Europe should go to school, before expressing their absolutely ridiculous and offensive falsehood.

Note
Picture: Cappadocia - Central Turkey, Cradle of the European Culture