Bounds of possibility: writing at the edges of Europe | Essay | Architectural Review
▻https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/bounds-of-possibility-writing-at-the-edges-of-europe/10042741.article
The conflict-strewn past of the borderlands of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey belies a depth of human spirit poignantly captured by Kapka Kassabova
Europe used to be divided, apparently, neatly and cleanly by an east-west border – an internal line of barbed wire and concrete. It was quickly dubbed, first by Goebbels and then by Winston Churchill, an ‘iron curtain’, running, according to Churchill, from ‘Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic’. Conversely, Daniel Trilling, author of Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe (2018), recently described the current borders of ‘Fortress Europe’ via the metaphor of the zones used by London Transport: ‘Zone One comprises the wealthy states of northwestern Europe, Zone Two the poorer countries on the EU’s southern and eastern periphery, and Zone Three countries just outside the EU, such as Morocco, Libya, Turkey and Ukraine. The aim, as it were, is to prevent as many unwanted migrants as possible from reaching the inner core, while preserving the passport-free travel that most EU citizens enjoy under the Schengen Agreement.’ So ‘the frontline states of Zone Two, such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, patrol the EU’s external borders, largely with national border forces supported and co-ordinated by the Warsaw-based EU agency Frontex’.