“A little jump to go from one continent to another”

When it comes to Turkey, Europe has never been too far. Even before the bridge was built, it was enough to pay just a few kurus to get there by boat, including eating one or two almond pies. Obscurity and ingratitude turned the Bosporus into a border.
Isn’t a border a line set by someone after a war? More important is a diffuse line that vaguely demarcates an not-well defined territory which is identified as a homeland or place of origin. Therefore, what is this “European civilization” where we would be excluded from? Europe is proud of its big cities, where well-fed and literate citizens live; but none of those things that Europe is proud of are of European origin. If we put aside the wild boar capture technique illustrated by Obelix, Europe has come up with very few initiatives on its own. The invention of cities, agriculture, writing, mathematics and legislation, including all religions that today play a predominant role across Europe, had been born in the East much earlier. The question of whether Christ was a man, a God, or both things, was negotiated in Nicaea, Minor Asia, not far from the place where most of the philosophers from ancient times lived in as well as the poet Homer. England, for its part, was subjected to missions and civilized by a man from Carthage.
There was a time in which a person who went through the Bosporus was welcomed since on a general basis, that person was expected to bring in something new, innovative, never seen in the forests of the locality, which were full of wild boars. The only thing that Gutenberg did was to reinvent the printing press in Europe and Luther’s great achievement was to translate again the Bible. The European talent was illustrated in learning, preservation and improvement. Europe’s original contribution only dates back 200 years ago. And it took quite some time for the geographical Europe to achieve a sufficient cultural autonomy to be able to contribute with something to the rest of the world and impose its point of view. Obviously, this communication was not always carried out peacefully. Even the means utilized that were also the source of its major crimes, such as black powder, the art of navigation and use of paper and ink, three pillars of European domain over the other continents, were extracted from the East.
How come to mention only Europe without thinking of the Silk Road, Mesopotamia, and doctors of Baghdad and Cordoba? Without them Europe would not be anything, just a land full of trees, a simple peninsula of the Eurasian continent! What is called “European cultural space” was born on the east of the Bosporus and west of Amur River. However, we are witnesses of a weird general amnesia. Europe turned mean, contemptuous and greedy. No, this arrogant Europe has nothing of homeland, and let along friendly. Those who risked their lives recently on the barbwires in Morocco, and had to sacrifice one of their feet to make it here, know that very well.